THE HEALTH & SAFETY HANDBOOK a practical guide to health and safety law, management policies and procedures By JEREMY STRANKS

  THE HEALTH & SAFETY HANDBOOK a practical guide to health and safety law, management policies and procedures By JEREMY STRANKS

Contents:

1 Principles of health and safety law

2 Health and safety management

3 The working environment

4 Engineering safety

5 Fire prevention and protection

6 Electrical safety

7 Health and safety in construction operations

8 Occupational health

9 Personal protective equipment

10 Human factors

11 Hazardous substances

INTRODUCTION:

Health and safety law is concerned with both the criminal and civil liabilities of employers towards their employees and to other persons who may be affected by their activities, such as the employees of contractors, visitors and members of the public. It takes the form of both common law and statute law.

Common law

Common law is the unwritten law in that it is not specified in statutes or regulations. It is based on the decisions of the civil courts over many years and bound by the doctrine of precedent. It is essentially law made by judges, which has been formed into a body of principles and rules. As such, it is synonymous with case law and is the principal area of law concerned with civil liability. Its various rules and principles are to be found in the law reports, such as the All England Reports (AER).

Statute law

Statutes, or Acts of Parliament, are the written law, such as the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974, the principal statute dealing with health and safety at work. The HSWA is an enabling Act entitling the Secretary of State for Employment to make regulations, such as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations. Statutes and regulations generally give rise to criminal liability. Employers who breach, for instance, the HSWA, or regulations made under the HSWA, may be subject to prosecution by one of the enforcement authorities, such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the local authority, in the criminal courts. Most prosecutions commence in the Magistrates’ Court. This court handles the bulk of the less serious health and safety offences where an offender, if found guilty of the charges levied, can be fined or imprisoned, or both. More serious cases are dealt with, on indictment, in the Crown Court, where trial is before a judge and jury.

CIVIL LAW

The duty to take reasonable care A breach of the common law gives rise to civil liability. Under the common law, employers owe their employees a duty to take reasonable care in order to avoid death, injuries and disease arising from work.

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