A change in regulation should see far fewer civil claims on health and safety grounds

Some good news for our clients, section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 has been in place for several months now, since October 1st 2013 in fact. A small but significant change introduced as part of the Act now makes it impossible for civil litigants to bring actions against their employer for a breach of duty under the regulations.

What does this mean to you?

In simple terms there we previously two routes to making a claim:

1. the injured party could assert that either the employer was negligent in their actions or arrangements, or;
2. they could argue that their employer hadn’t complied with health and safety regulation (often the easier route to a claim).

Now there is only the first option which is good news for employers.  This change will make it more difficult for claims to be successful as claimants can no longer simply rely on a technical breach of health and safety law. They will have to prove that the employer did not take “reasonable care” and prove that lack of care led to their injury, damage or loss.

Whilst it is going to take some time before we see any reduction in terms of litigation or insurance premiums this remains good news for all of our clients and another nail in the coffin of No Win No Fee actions and the compensation culture which this encourages.

The amendments are likely to reduce civil claims and will make employers feel less exposed to the risk of a claim. But don’t forget that claims are still both possible and are likely to continue to some time yet, particularly those which relates to incidents which occurred before the changes we made (01/10/2013).