Martin Adlem Health and Safety Advisor

Is Health and Safety Legislation Common Sense or Over-Regulation

Despite what the papers say, for the vast majority of companies compliance with Health and Safety Laws and Regulations is simple and not onerous. The legal requirement is:

"To control reasonably foreseeable risks as far as is reasonably practicable."

The most obvious thing about that statement is that the word reasonably occurs twice. However, since we are talking about a legal duty it makes sense to ensure that you have evidence that you are trying your best. This normally takes the form of a Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessments. Again this should not be onerous. The regulations require that records are "suitable and sufficient". Many people misguidedly think this means lots of paperwork. Nothing could be further from the truth as a legal test "suitable and sufficient" simply means enough to show you have complied, therefore unless you are working with very serious risks some simple notes will be enough. Time and effort should be given to making actual improvements, where reasonable, not wasting paper that no-one ever looks at. On the other hand a good risk assessment should be a useful document that can be used to train staff and make them aware of the hazards they face.

People will point out the large number of regulations under the Health and Safety at Work Act and try to frighten you into spending money and wasting your time. Sometimes this is to get your money, sometimes it is part of a more general attack on the EU, government and/or society in general. In reality a lot of the regulations will not apply to any given company; a few regulations will be particularly relevant as they specifically target the industry you work in and a number of others will apply to the general risks we all face. The purpose of regulations to make sure that we comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act, they are guidance as to how to deal with particular problems, but with the power of law to back them up. The HSE also produce a variety of Approved Codes of Practice and guidance documents which help to explain the best approaches to take to comply with the law, and more importantly to make the workplace reasonably safe. These are well written and easily understood.

The vast majority of people capable of running a business are able to so safely and comply with the law. The two problems are that most of us have is that we don't have the time to check on all that HSE guidance and ACOPs (Approved Codes of Practice), to select what is relevant to us and that we are complying reasonably well, and therefore that we worry that we might be doing something wrong.

This is where Martin Adlem can help. I can look at what your company is doing and let you know if and where changes may be needed or might make things easier. I can assist with the training and/or help produce the necessary systems and paperwork. I can provide peace of mind that what you are doing is sensible, reasonable and that should an HSE Inspector visit he won't think you are breaking the law.