Withdrawal of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations Approved Code of Practice

As a result of the Löftsted review and the subsequent HSE review of its approved codes of practice (ACOPs), the Management Regulations ACOP (L21) was withdrawn and replaced with HSE guidance at the end of July 2013.

The HSE has produced a suite of what it describes as “core guidance” designed to make it easier for businesses to understand what they need to do to comply with health and safety regulations. The final part of this is the revised and updated guidance, Successful health and safety management (HSG65), which is divided into three sections:

• core elements of managing for health and safety;

• whether you are doing what you need to do; and

• delivering effective arrangements.

The three sections can be accessed at: www.hse.gov.uk/managing/index.htm.

The new guidance moves away from using a “Policy, Organising, Planning, Measuring performance, Auditing and Review” model of managing health and safety to a “Plan, Do, Check, Act” approach.

Unions have been extremely critical of the decision to remove the ACOP, particularly as neither Lord Young nor Professor Löfstedt recommended its withdrawal. “An ACOP has different status from guidance and as any safety rep could have told them, employers are far more likely to do something because it is in an ACOP,” said TUC assistant general secretary Paul Nowak. “Replacing an ACOP with guidance is simply downgrading it and giving it ‘nice to have’ status.”