Lawford Kidd's Blog

Figures published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2014 showed that Britain is one of the safest places to work in the EU, however with 133 deaths and over 78,000 people injured in the last year alone, just how good are the health and safety standards in the UK?

Recent statistics show that as well as numerous employees sustaining injuries in the workplace, over 1.1 million employees suffer from a work-related illness, costing society, on average, £14.2 billion a year to treat.

Illnesses in the workplace cost employers 60% more than injuries throughout the working year. The report also showed that 28.2 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury in 2013/14.

New health and safety regulations regarding explosives are set to come into force next month – October 2014.

The Explosives Regulations 2014 (ER 2014) and the Acetylene Safety (England and Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2014 (ASR 2014) come as a result of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reviewing the existing health and safety explosive legislation.

The HSE review found that the existing law needed clarification and modernisation - the complicated legal duties owed to various different bodies, and the differing definitions at UK and International law, together produced a very complex picture.  The HSE therefore concluded that a broader, more coherent framework would be far more effective.  

An independent panel, chaired by a Liverpool University professor, has concluded that the Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme - found under regulations 23 to 25 of the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012 - has been widely effective and should stay.

Government plans to deregulate areas of health and safety, have been criticised by Members of the House of Lords.

As explained in our blog from last week – “Certain Self-Employed Persons to Become Exempt from Health & Safety Law?” - under current UK Government plans, all self-employed workers, with the exception of those undertaking ‘prescribed activities’, will become exempt from health and safety law.

The ‘prescribed activities’ are those thought to be high hazard or high risk, and includes agriculture and construction sectors.

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: