NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW 2015
HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION
It was back in 2011 when the UK government commissioned a review of health and safety
legislation by Professor Löftstedt. Despite the fact that Professor Löftstedt concluded no real
modifications were required, the government tasked the Health and Safety Executive Executive
(HSE) with evaluating and repealing H&S legislation and guidance by April 2015.
T
his has resulted in a review of over 20 H&S Approved Codes
of Practice (ACOP). A key change was the cancellation of the
ACOP concerning the Management of Health and Safety at
Work Regulations 1999 in 2014. This was allegedly balanced by a
review of the HSE’s guide to Managing Safety (HSG65) at the end of
2013.
What does this mean? In making these variations to `simplify’
guidance and ACOPs, some of the changes have caused a loss in
information and practical interpretation of how H&S legislation should
be applied. Thus, this could be considered as a regressive step.
Another consideration is the increasing use of direct acting
European Legislation. This means that the legislation applies in
member countries of the EU without the country having to pass their
own laws. An example of this is the Classification Labelling Packaging
(CLP) Regulations, which comes fully into effect in June 2015 and
substitutes the UK’s Chemical (Hazard Information and Packaging)
Regulations 2009 (CHIP).
Finally, in 2013, the strict liability link to H&S legislation where
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HSE INTERNATIONAL
a worker is claiming for compensation was removed. This will have
a continuing major effect on the ability for successful claims from
workers in coming years, although there is no doubt companies will
feel more protected from claims. The Government will argue good
for business, but is it good for H&S?
According to Bryan Richards, Chartered Safety & Health
Practitioner at Arinite, there are both positive and negative points in
these changes, listed below:
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
(CDM Regs)
The consultative document for these regulations resulted in
a large response from industries, where 50% commented that
the Regulations should not be changed. Despite these contrary
comments, the unchanged Regulations came into force on 6th
April 2015. The main concern was the exclusion of the role of CDM
Coordinator and passing the obligations on to the Principle designer
(Architect).