Manual handling case law

A number of legal cases have provided further guidance on the regulations:

• the fact than an employer fails to carry out a risk assessment does not mean that they are not under a duty to take steps to give information about the weight of a load where there is a risk of injury (Swain v Denso Martin Ltd (2000), The Times, 24 April 2000);

• the difficulties NHS employers have in reconciling duties towards patients and employees have been taken into account (King v Sussex Ambulance NHS Trust [2002] EWCA Civ 953), but this is not always the case (Knott v Newham Healthcare NHS Trust [2002] EWHC 2091 (QB));

• an employer required to take appropriate steps to reduce a risk of injury to the lowest level reasonably practicable must, in assessing the risk, consider the particular task, the context of where it is performed and the employee required to perform it (O’Neill v DSG Retail Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1139).

Guidance on what a “suitable and sufficient” risk assessment is can be found in Ghaith v Indesit Co UK Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 642 and Sloan v Governors of Rastrick High School [2014] EWCA Civ 1063.