Health and Safety Law In The UK – What Does The Construction Industry Need To Be Aware Of In 2015?

21/07/2015

In a Department for Work and Pensions policy paper entitled; 2010 to 2015 Government Policy: Health and Safety Reform (the Policy) identified a number of issues hindering the building of trust and communication between the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and business owners.

These issues included:

• too many inspections of relatively low risk and well-performing workplaces        
• an overly complex structure for regulation         
• businesses too often received poor health and safety advice from badly qualified consultants

The HSE runs a delicate gauntlet of maintaining rigorous health and safety laws which comply with both domestic and European Union (EU) regulations, and the need for business to have the flexibility and freedom to remain profitable.

In this blog we will be examining what have been made to counter-act these concerns and strike a balance between employee safety and business profitability and how they affect the construction industry in 2015.

Also, we will examine the marked increase since 2008 of the prosecution of individuals as opposed to organisations and what this means for managers, directors and employees.

Too Many Health and Safety Inspections

In 2013 the government announced it would take a lighter touch with regards to health and safety inspections, concentrating on serial offenders and high-risk industries (which includes construction).  The aim of this move was to reduce the number of health and safety inspections.  The Policy, which was updated on 8^th May 2015, states that HSE has reduced the number of proactive inspections it does each year by a third, from around 33,000 to 22,000.

However, the HSE statistics do illustrate an increase in the number of cases where they instituted legal proceedings (505 cases in 2009/2010 up to 582 in 2013/14), which could indicate that by moving the focus and resources of inspectors to high-risk industries and organisations, more prosecutions are being made.  The construction industry needs to accept the spotlight remains on them and any breaches in health and safety or lax policies are likely to be spotted sooner rather than later.

Simplifying the Health and Safety Regulations

Starting in 2010, the HSE began a program to simplify health and safety regulations to make it easier for businesses to:

a)      Know where to find the information relevant to them regarding health and safety law; and

b)      Understand how specific regulations applied to their organisation

To this end, the HSE has reduced the amount of health and safety legislation by 50%, as well as simplified reporting requirements.  They have also published a ‘Health and Safety Made Simple’ guide to assist SMEs to build their own health and safety policies and procedures. Therefore, it has become easier to justify the increase in prosecutions and fines levied in recent years because access to information can no longer be seen as an excuse for not abiding by HSE regulations.

Monitoring Independent Health and Safety Consultants

Those who work in the construction and manufacturing industries often have no choice but to rely on the expertise of independent health and safety consultants due to time and knowledge constraints.  However, if the consultants are poorly qualified, inexperienced or simply get it wrong, the consequences can be disastrous.

In February 2015, an independent health and safety consultant was jailed for nine months after a worker was crushed to death when the side wall of an unsupported trench collapsed. 

The court found that despite identifying the risk of trenches collapsing in his risk assessments, an inadequate method statement was drafted.  In addition, the construction company changed their method of work, employing hand-digging in trenches rather than the excavator and earth suction machine specified in the method statement. The consultant failed to challenge this, even though he had the authority to call a halt to works being carried out in a dangerous manner.

It is clear that independent health and safety consultants owe an independent duty to make inspection and stop any works that pose a danger to workers.  If they fail to do this, they can be prosecuted alongside the organisation which engaged them.

To assist industries in choosing qualified independent health and safety consultants, the HSE set up the official register of Occupational Safety and Health Consultants in January 2011.  To be included in the register, the consultant must be accredited to a  professional body within the relevant industry.

Prosecution of Individuals for Health and Safety Breaches

According to HSE figures, there has been a 32% increase in the prosecution of individuals since 2008. 

 In 2014, the government announced that tougher penalties would be handed out to employers who were in breach of serious health and safety laws following a change in approach to prosecutions. Changes introduced under the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 led to more cases being tried in the lower courts, higher fines handed out to convicted offenders and more jail terms.

The basis of these individual prosecutions falls under the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act.  Section 37 applies to managers and directors, and section 7 of the Act applies to all employees and requires them to take reasonable care of themselves and to others while they are at work. They also have a duty to co-operate with their employers on health and safety matters.

In Summary – What This Means for the Construction Industry

In 2014, the HSE reported that health conditions at construction sites are poor. They instructed inspectors to look at health,  as well as safety,  during their site visits. They claimed that it was clear that the construction industry had an unacceptable level of ill health and fatal disease.

 In April 2015, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (the CDM Regulations) came into force. These regulations require construction firms to appoint a principal designer and principal contractor whenever any work involves more than one contractor. Those who are in breach of the CDM Regulations may face prosecution and the fine imposed has no limits.  If individuals are found guilty of breaching the CDM Regulations they face imprisonment.

If conditions do not improve on previously inspected construction sites, then the HSE will bring prosecutions against individuals and companies for breaches of health and safety legislation, and it is expected that for those convicted of an offence, any potential fines will be significantly larger than those previously handed out in the past.

Therefore, the overall trend in health and safety can be summed up by stating that the HSE has:

• Simplified its regulations and reporting          
• Concentrated its inspections on high-risk offenders          
• Now comes down hard on organisations and individuals who continue to flout health and safety regulations and put their workforce at risk and will impose heavier fines and jail terms to hammer home the point that health and safety regulations must be complied with.

   

  If you have any questions regarding health and safety legislation, or if you require an emergency incident response or internal investigation, call us on 0207 993 6960 to make an appointment.