Lawford Kidd's Blog

Under current Health and Safety Executive (HSE) proposals, self-employed people in the United Kindgom (UK), whose work activities pose no potential risk of harm to others, are to become exempt from Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA).

Self-employed persons undertaking activities on a prescribed list however, will continue to have duties under health and safety law.

The prescribed activities listed by the HSE are those:

One of the UK’s main health and safety bodies has reiterated its opposition to Government plans to deregulate areas of health and safety.

The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is opposed to a clause in the Government’s Deregulation Bill that exempts certain self-employed workers from health and safety law.

The clause suggests that workers will be exempt from health and safety law if they are self-employed, do not employ anyone else, that their activities pose no potential risk of harm to others, and that they do not work in a high hazard or high risk sector (to be designated ‘prescribed’) such as agriculture, construction or gas fitting and installation.

A recent report from the British Safety Council has highlighted why investing in health and safety makes sound business sense.

According to the report, the true cost of failures in occupational health and safety to the UK economy amounted to £13.8 billion in 2011/2012, with work related illnesses costing around £8.4 billion.

“At a time when the latest GDP figures show the country slowly returning to economic health, we know that making workers ill and injured hurts all of us,” said Alex Botha, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council. “What this literature review tells us loud and clear is that getting health and safety right makes good business sense and can save organisations money.”

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has said it is “disappointed” and “concerned” over plans to deregulate areas of health and safety.

The Joint Committee providing pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Deregulation Bill issued its report towards the end of last year, and IOSH has repeated its concerns that some self-employed people could be excluded from necessary health and safety legislation.

IOSH head of policy and public affairs Richard Jones said: “IOSH is disappointed and concerned that the Committee has not recommended the removal of the clause exempting certain self-employed from health and safety law, particularly given the serious concerns raised by IOSH and others during the inquiry.”

Adequate levels of health and safety regulation and enforcement need to be introduced across the EU, with help for small and medium-sized enterprises to comply, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has said.

In its submission to a consultation on the EU OSH Policy Framework, Europe’s largest professional body in health and safety has set out its views on how policies are formed across member states to protect people from work-related injury and ill health.

It wants to see the protection of vulnerable groups included in the framework of occupational health management and reporting, and health and safety embedded in the education system.