The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (initialisms: HSWA, HASWA or HASAWA ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that as of 2008 defines the fundamental structure and authority for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare within the United Kingdom.
The Act defines general duties on employers, employees, contractors, suppliers of goods and substances for use at work, persons in control of work premises, and those who manage and maintain them, and persons in general. The Act enables a broad regime of regulation by government ministers through Statutory Instrument which has, in the years since 1974, generated an extensive system of specific provisions for various industries, disciplines and risks. It established a system of public supervision through the creation of the Health and Safety Commission and Health and Safety Executive, since merged, and bestows extensive enforcement powers, ultimately backed by criminal sanctions extending to unlimited fines and imprisonment for up to two years. Further, the Act provides a critical interface with the law of the European Union on workplace health and safety.
Background
Secretary of defence Barbara Castle introduced an Employed Persons (Health and Safety) Bill in 1970 but the debate around the Bill soon generated a belief that it did not address fundamental issues of workplace safety. In the same year, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed into United States federal law. As a result, a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Robens was established towards the end of Harold Wilson's first government, October 1964 - June 1970. When the Conservative Party came to power following the United Kingdom general election, 1970, they gave Castle's Bill no parliamentary time, preferring to wait for the Robens Report which was published in 1972. Conservative Secretary of State for Employment William Whitelaw introduced a new Bill on 28 January 1974 but Labour were returned to power in the United Kingdom general election, February 1974 and the Bill again lost. The new Labour administration finally secured the passage of a Bill that year.
Structure of the Act
The Act lays down general principles for the management of health and safety at work, enabling the creation of specific requirements through regulations enacted as Statutory Instruments or through codes of practice. For example, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at Work Regulations 1992 and the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 are all Statutory Instruments that lay down detailed requirements. It was also the intention of the Act to rationalise the existing complex and confused system of legislation (s.1(2)).
Since the accession of the UK to the European Union (EU) in 1972, much health and safety regulation has needed to comply with the law of the European Union and Statutory Instruments under the Act have been enacted in order to implement EU directives. In particular, the Act is the principal means of complying with Council Directive 89/391/EEC on health and safety at work. Further important changes to section 6, duties in respect of articles and substances used at work, were made by the Consumer Protection Act 1987 in order to implement Council Directive 85/374/EEC on liability for defective products.
Objectives
Section 1 sets out the objectives of the Act as:
- Securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work;
- Protecting persons, other than persons at work, against risks to health or safety arising out of or in connection with the activities of persons at work;
- Controlling the keeping and use of explosive or highly flammable or otherwise dangerous substances, and generally preventing the unlawful acquisition, possession and use of such substances.
As originally enacted, there was a fourth objective:
- Controlling the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances;
— but this provision was repealed when control of emissions was brought under a uniform scheme of legislation by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In general, the other provisions about emissions in the original Act have subsequently been repealed.
General duties
Duties of employers
Section 2 states that "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable , the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees", and in particular that such a duty extends to:
- Provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable , safe and without risks to health;
- Arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable , safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
- Provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable , the health and safety at work of his employees;
- So far as is reasonably practicable as regards any place of work under the employer’s control, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of means of access to and egress from it that are safe and without such risks;
- Provision and maintenance of a working environment for his employees that is, so far as is reasonably practicable , safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work.
Section 3 states the duty of all employers and self employed persons to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable the safety of persons other than employees, for example, contractors, visitors, the general public and clients.
Employers must also prepare and keep under review a safety policy and to bring it to the attention of his employees (s.2(2)). Trade unions may appoint safety representatives and demand safety committees . The representatives have a right to be consulted on safety issues (ss.2(4), (6) and (7)). Since 1996 employers have had a duty to consult all employees on safety matters. No employer may charge an employee for provision of health and safety arrangements (s.9).
The Act does not apply to domestic servants (s.51).
Duties of persons having control of premises
Section 4 defines a duty of occupiers of premises, for example commercial landlords, managers of serviced office accommodation, and also maintenance contractors, towards people who use those premises for work. Those premises, and the means of entry and exit, must be, as far as reasonably practicable safe and without risks to health.
Duties towards articles used at work
An article for use at work is any (s.53(1):
- Plant designed for use or operation, whether exclusively or not, by persons at work, and
- Article designed for use as a component in any such plant.
Section 6(1) defines the duty of any person who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies any article for use at work to:
- Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable , that the article is so designed and constructed that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times when it is being set, used, cleaned or maintained by a person at work;
- Perform such testing and examination as may be necessary to ensure safety;
- Take such steps as are necessary to secure that persons supplied with the article are provided with adequate information about the use for which the article is designed, or has been tested, and about any conditions necessary to ensure that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times, including when it is being dismantled or disposed of; and
- Take such steps as are necessary to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable , that persons are provided with all such revisions of information as are necessary by reason of its becoming known that anything gives rise to a serious risk to health or safety.
A person may rely on testing done by other so long as it is reasonable for him to do so (s.6(6)). A person may rely on a written undertaking by another person to ensure the safety of an item (s.6(8)) Designers and manufacturers must carry out research to identify and eliminate risks, as far as reasonably practicable (s.6(2)). Erectors and installers have responsibilities to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable , that an article is so erected and installed that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times when it is being set, used, cleaned or maintained by a person at work (s.6(3)).
Section 6 was extended by the Consumer Protection Act 1987 to cover fairground equipment and its use by persons at work and enjoyment by members of the public.
Duties towards substances used at work
Section 6(4) defines the duty of any person who manufactures, imports or su
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