Introduction

This latest edition of the Labour Research Department’s annual guide to health and safety law, Health and Safety Law 2014, sets out the law using clear and practical language, explains the changes that have taken place since the last edition, and addresses further changes and likely developments for 2014-2015. It is aimed at trade union members and reps, and will be of particular use to safety reps.

The guide is being published at a time of continued and unprecedented government hostility towards health and safety regulation. In January 2014, prime minister David Cameron gave a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses. He said: “This government has already stopped needless health and safety inspections. And we will scrap over-zealous rules which dictate how to use a ladder at work or what no-smoking signs must look like. We’ve changed the law so that businesses are no longer automatically liable for an accident that isn’t their fault. And the new Deregulation Bill will exempt large numbers of self-employed people from health and safety law altogether”.

In May 2014, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady spoke against the government’s proposal to exempt the self-employed from health and safety legislation. “The government has chosen the 40th anniversary of the Health and Safety at Work Act to make one of the most dangerous changes since the legislation came into effect in 1974”, she said. It has decided that 4.3 millionself-employed people should not be subject to the Act unless they are on a prescribed list. This is a huge step backwards and could lead to a big increase in deaths, injuries and ill health”. The government proposal to exempt many of the self-employed under the Deregulation Bill is discussed in Chapter 12.

Health and safety law and enforcement has already been weakened as a result of recommendations contained in two government-commissioned reviews of health and safety law: the 2010 Young Review, Common sense, Common safety, and the 2011 Löfstedt Review: Reclaiming health and safety for all, and there have been changes which go beyond the recommendations contained in these reports.

The government’s deregulatory agenda is both ideological and cost driven. On 28 April 2014, Workers Memorial Day, the TUC published its new report: Toxic, corrosive and hazardous: The government’s record on health and safety. In the report, the TUC reveals how the government has cut HSE funding by 40% in the last four years, blocked new regulations and removed vital existing protection, cut support for health and safety reps and made it much harder for injured or ill workers to claim compensation following their employer’s negligence.

The report also points out how proactive health and safety inspections by local authorities no longer take place in many industries, and while various councils have been hit differently by the level of cuts depending on the proportion of central government grant received, local authorities in the most deprived areas of England are facing cuts averaging 25.3% between the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16. Overall, local authorities have reduced their inspections by a massive 93% since 2009-10 and the number of inspectors employed by local authorities has fallen from 1,050 full-time equivalents in 2009-10 to 854 in 2013-14.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s National Local Authority Enforcement Code explicitly outlaws proactive inspections outside “high risk areas” by local authority regulators and exempts hundreds of thousands of businesses from “burdensome” health and safety inspections. Businesses are now only inspected if they are operating in high-risk areas or if they have a poor safety record. In addition, a proposed “growth duty” for regulators would require the HSE to take into account the impact of their activities on the economic prospects of firms they regulate, and a revised Regulators’ Code, introduced in Spring 2014, requires “methods of enforcement that are tailored to meet the needs of the business.”

In the current climate of job insecurity, fear of dismissal and attacks on facility time, effective solidarity and collective action to champion safe working practices are more important than ever. In these circumstances it is crucial for reps to continue emphasising health and safety as a key organising issue in the interests of all workers, as well as continuing to campaign at local and national level.

Since the coalition government came to office in May 2010, there have been many campaigns and protests against the undermining of workplace health and safety, in particular, the Hazards campaigns: “We didn’t vote to die at work” and “Stop it: You’re killing us!”

In January 2014, a Triennial Review of the HSE by Martin Temple of the employers’ manufacturing organisation EEF was published, confirming that the HSE’s functions were still necessary in reducing injury and ill health at work. The independent report also found that the HSE as a non-departmental government body was the best way to execute its functions.

The report was broadly supported by trade unions. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This is the fourth government-commissioned report in recent years to highlight the benefits that the HSE brings to workers across the UK. There was huge support from all those who responded to the review for the work of the HSE as a public body. We believe that, given the scale of injury and illness across UK workplaces, the government should not undermine the ability of the HSE to meet that challenge.”

Health and safety law 2014 aims to provide trade union reps and safety reps with a comprehensive guide to the law on health and safety at work. The booklet examines the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the regulations made under the Act that deal with specific areas of health and safety. It looks at:

• the basic structure of health and safety law (Chapter 1);

• health and safety enforcement (Chapter 2);

• the management of health and safety (Chapter 3);

• safety representatives and safety committees (Chapter 4);

• the workplace and the working environment (Chapter 5);

• hazardous substances (Chapter 6);

• physical hazards, such as manual handling and repetitive tasks (Chapter 7);

• fire, noise, vibration and electricity (Chapter 8);

• hours of work (Chapter 9);

• the reporting of accidents and ill health (Chapter 10);

• stress, bullying and violence (Chapter 11); and

• exempting the self-employed from health and safety law (Chapter 12).

The Act and the Regulations referred to in this booklet can all be found on the Legislation UK website at: www.legislation.gov.uk.

Approved Codes of Practice (known as ACOPs) and Guidance on Regulations, are published by the HSE and can be downloaded free of charge from its website at: www.hse.org.uk.

This booklet also provides examples from legal claims, known as “case law”. In each instance the case reference is given, consisting of the name of the individual or body making the application to the Court and the individual or body against whom it is being made.

For example, Allison v London Underground Ltd [2008] IRLR 440, tells you that the applicant was called Allison, the case was brought against London Underground Ltd and that the judgment was reported in the law reports for 2008. The letters IRLR stand for the publication it was reported in, Industrial Relations Law Reports, and the number 440 that the case was reported on page 440. Other relevant court cases and employment tribunal decisions not reported in IRLR are referenced wherever possible, either as they appeared in the press, or by the Court or tribunal reference number.

The Labour Research Department provides an enquiry service for affiliates and deals with many health and safety enquiries from union members and reps. See: www.lrdpublications.org.uk/affiliations, for details of how to affiliate.

The monthly publications Safety Rep, Labour Research and Workplace Report also include many health and safety topics as do some LRD booklets. For further information and ordering details see the LRD website at: www.lrdpublications.org.uk.