HSE Guidance on the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations



The HSE withdrew the Management Regulations approved code of practice (ACOP) (L21) and replaced it with a suite of “core guidance”. This includes Managing for health and safety (HSG65), which has moved away from a “Policy, Organising, Planning, Measuring Performance, Auditing and Review” model of managing health and safety to a “Plan, Do, Check, Act” approach.


Unions were extremely critical of the decision to remove the ACOP, particularly as neither Lord Young nor Professor Löfstedt (see pages 21-23) had 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 deputy general secretary Paul Nowak. “Replacing an ACOP with guidance is simply downgrading it and giving it ‘nice to have’ status.”