[SystemSafety] Proposed changes to the UK Health and Safety at WorkAct

[Inge, James Mr]

As far as I can make out, the current wording means that by default, a
breach of health and safety regulations that causes damage may be
actionable in a civil court, unless the regulations say otherwise.  If
the new amendment goes ahead, it would reverse the situation, so that
breaches would not be actionable in a civil court by default.  However,
it provides that new regulations could be made to permit civil action
within a certain scope.

 

The impact of the amendment would depend on what goes into those new
regulations, if and when they are made.  It's worth noting that the
proposed amendment itself would not necessarily take effect when the
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill was passed (or indeed, at all).
It would have to be brought into force separately by means of a
commencement order.

 

The amendment doesn't seem to change criminal liability for health &
safety issues.  My (non-professional!) interpretation is that it would
not affect the protection of workers from being harmed, but in the event
of harm, it might make it less likely that employees could claim
damages.  I didn't spot anything that deals with what defence the
employer might make against the claim, but it says that allowed defences
could be specified in the regulations.

 

The current text of Section 47 is available at
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37/section/47

The latest progress of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is at
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/enterpriseandregulatoryrefor
m.html, including a link to the latest version of the Bill.  The version
I looked at was dated 19 Oct 2012, with the relevant Health & Safety bit
at Section 61.

 

Regards,

 

            James

 

________________________________

From: systemsafety-bounces at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
[mailto:systemsafety-bounces at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of
Martin Lloyd
Sent: 13 January 2013 11:43
To: systemsafety at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: [SystemSafety] Proposed changes to the UK Health and Safety at
WorkAct

 


Dear Colleagues

I would like to draw your attention to the following:

1. The UK government is proposing to change the Health and Safety at
Work Act. 
2. The proposed change is summarised below from the following (rather
under-supported) petition at
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/41086 which includes the
wording:

The amendment to Section 47 of the Health and Safety Work Act 1974, has
been added to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill at the eleventh
hour. The amendment would mean that: 

- Employers would no longer have a strict liability for the health and
safety of their workers, for the first time since 1898. 

- Workers could not rely on an employer's breach of health and safety
law to win a personal injury claim, they would have to provide proof of
negligence. 

- Enforcement of health and safety law would be increasingly left up to
a significantly weakened and less effective Health and Safety Executive.


- Employers will increasingly hide behind the defence that complying to
health and safety regulations was not "reasonably practicable".

3. It would be very helpful to state the implications of this amendment
and its likely consequences so that a reasoned case against it could be
constructed.

4. It would be helpful to know how the current state of UK Health and
Safety Law compares with other countries at the moment, and also how far
the proposed amendment would set the UK behind others in terms of its
levels of protection for workers.




-- 
Kind regards
 
Martin Lloyd
 
 
===========================
Dr M H Lloyd CEng FIET
martin.farside at btinternet.com
 
Tel: +44(0)118 941 2728
Mobile: +44(0)786 697 6840
 
www.farsideresearch.co.uk
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