The European Union (EU) and UK health and safety legislation

Although developments have slowed down in recent years, the European Union (EU) is still an important source of UK health and safety law. For example, new legislation on the control of major accident hazards which came into force on 1 June 2015 (COMAH 2015) (see page 103) derives from a European directive (the Seveso III Directive).

However, in October 2013 the European Commission announced that it would suspend all work on its already overdue workplace health and safety strategy until the new Commission took office in November 2014. All health and safety at work measures under discussion, including those aimed at preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and exposure to carcinogens were put on hold.

The move was part of the Commission’s Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT), which began in December 2012, to review the entire stock of EU legislation and identify “burdens”, inconsistencies and gaps. It aims to “simplify” EU social laws, including those concerned with improving health and safety at work. The European Parliament approved the REFIT programme in February 2014.

In June 2014, the European Commission announced a new Strategy on health and safety for the period up until 2020. This identified three major health and safety at work challenges:

• to improve implementation of existing health and safety rules, in particular by enhancing the capacity of micro and small enterprises to put in place effective and efficient risk prevention strategies;

• to improve the prevention of work-related diseases by tackling new and emerging risks without neglecting existing risks; and

• to take account of the ageing of the EU’s workforce.

It proposed addressing these challenges with a range of actions under seven key strategic objectives:

• further consolidating national health and safety strategies through, for example, policy coordination and mutual learning;

• providing practical support to small and micro enterprises to help them to better comply with health and safety rules;

• improving enforcement by Member States for example by evaluating the performance of national labour inspectorates;

• simplifying existing legislation where appropriate to eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens, while preserving a high level of protection for workers’ health and safety;

• addressing the ageing of the European workforce and improving prevention of work-related diseases to tackle existing and new risks such as nanomaterials, green technology and biotechnologies;

• improving statistical data collection to have better evidence and developing monitoring tools; and

• reinforcing coordination with international organisations (such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and partners to contribute to reducing work accidents and occupational diseases and to improving working conditions worldwide.

The Framework will be reviewed in 2016 following the results of the ongoing evaluation of EU occupational health and safety legislation which will be available by the end of 2015. The new “Juncker Commission” started its term of office on 1 November 2014.