Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 40th Anniversary

Some huge changes have taken place in the past 40 years in terms of industry and the service sector.  Our economy has grown and changed from one based on manufacturing to one more aligned to high-tech and the service / financial sectors.  Through all of this the Health and Safety at Work Act has continued to apply to a very changed world.

What has helped in this is the way in which it is structured.  The Robens report changed legislation from being industry and item specific into a goal setting type of legislation which put the emphasis back at the door of the businesses managing risk.

You can see this as a blessing or a curse but the fact is that by doing this the Act enables us to implement safety in a way which works with our businesses.  Wait – I can feel a huge groan in the background!  Don’t be too hard on the Act itself or the HSE or others who enforce it.  What needs to change is not the Act itself but what has built up around it; no win no fee cases and ambulance chasers.  Without these influences we are free to implement common sense – so on the 40th anniversary of the Act lets all work together to do what everyone actually wants.  Reasonable measure to make sure everyone goes home safe today an every day.

Read on below for the HSE press release.

This year mark 40 years since Health and Safety at Work Act received Royal Assent. Arguably it is one of the best pieces of legislation on the statute books – although we know it is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has protected millions of British workers, and driven sharp reductions in incidents of occupational death, serious injury and ill health.

In 1974, fatalities to employees covered by the legislation in place then stood at 651. The latest figure for 2012/13 was down to 148 for employees and self-employed combined. The actual reduction is probably more than this as data for sectors not covered by health and safety law pre 1974 was not collected. In the same time frame (and with the same caveat) non-fatal injuries have dropped by more than 75 percent. There is still room for improvement clearly, but the change in the last 40 years is quite remarkable.

Before the 1974 Act there was a host of different regulations – some industries swamped with prescriptive rules and others with little or no regulation at all. Something needed to be done.

The 1972 Robens Report concluded there were too many regulations and that what was needed was a regulatory regime that set broad, non-prescriptive goals for dutyholders, underpinned by a fundamental principle: ‘those that create risk are best placed to manage it’.

The Act that emerged from his review swept away detailed and prescriptive industry regulations; it created a flexible system where regulations describe goals and principles, supported by codes of practice and guidance. Based on consultation and engagement, the new regime was designed to deliver a proportionate, targeted and risk-based approach.

Forty years on this approach still applies. Despite having diversified away from an economy based predominantly on heavy industry and manufacturing, much of the original vision and framework of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 remains relevant. The principles have been applied time and again to new and emerging technologies and sectors. The legacy is a safety record envied around the world.

Much of the current reform agenda is aimed at: stripping out unnecessary or duplicated regulation and helping smaller businesses to understand how to take a proportionate approach to managing their risks – but the basic principles remain the same.

Forty years on the Health and Safety at Work Act has demonstrated it can be applied to new responsibilities and new demands, creating the framework for people to come home safe and well from a day’s work in any sector of the economy.