Our aim is to ensure that by working in partnership with others, we will try to secure safe and healthy working conditions through the production of an effective enforcement service by motivated and competent officers.
Statutory Duty
We have a statutory duty to ensure that the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and associated legislation are adequately enforced in the South Hams.
How is Health and Safety Law Enforced?
The task of ensuring that health and safety at work law is enforced is shared between Local Authorities (LAs) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Environmental Health Section is responsible for LA enforcement within the South Hams area.
Traditionally, Local Authorities have been responsible for enforcement mainly in commercial and retailing undertakings, which include shops, warehouses, offices, hotels and catering, sports, leisure (not Council leisure centres), consumer services (launderettes, hairdressers, undertakers, shoe repair, tyre and exhaust fitters), residential care homes and churches.
The HSE covered mainly industrial activities such as factories, building sites, mines and quarries, agriculture, railways, chemical plant and offshore and nuclear installations. They also cover fairgrounds.
More recently, South Hams Council and the HSE have been working in partnership and now use a system which allows any appointed enforcement officer from either the LA or HSE to enforce health and safety in any premises. This means that dangerous situations can be dealt with faster, businesses where enforcement is shared can be dealt with by only one authority and because of the new way in which enforcement is managed, limited resources can be targeted where they have the greatest impact.
How do We Enforce Health and Safety?
In general, inspections are carried out at a frequency determined by the risk posed in that business. More frequent inspections will take place in a warehouse than in a shoe shop because the likelihood of a serious accident occurring is greater. Similarly more inspections will take place in a business if the risks have been poorly controlled in the past or where accidents have happened.
A new project has recently been launched called FIT3. This stands for :-
•Fit for Work
•Fit for Life
•Fit for Tomorrow.
It encompasses a wide range of topics and projects which have constantly caused the most concern and produce the majority of reported accidents and occupational ill health. They include:-
•Slips and Trips
•Falls from Height
•Workplace Transport
•Contact Dermatitis
•Occupational Asthma
•Duty to Manage Asbestos
•Stress in the Financial Sector
•Backs Campaign (back injuries)
South Hams Council is committed to this project in partnership with other Devon authorities and has pledged a significant amount of time and manpower to ensure its success.
The main aim of an inspection is to prevent workplace accidents and occupational ill-health by:
•Inspecting workplaces to make sure that the risks are properly managed.
•Investigating accidents, occupational ill-health and dangerous occurrences and if necessary, requiring improvements.
•Investigating complaints about working conditions or work practices.
•Making recommendations of good practice.
•Helping people meet their legal responsibilities.
•Acting as a source of advice on any aspect of health and safety.
•Promoting awareness/knowledge of safety issues through campaigns, seminars and training courses.
•Taking the most appropriate remedial action including issuing formal notices.
•Taking legal proceedings where it is the public interest to do so.
South Hams District Council has a health and safety enforcement policy which explains in more details how inspections are carried out and what enforcement options are available.
How do Inspectors ao about an Inspection?
This depends on why the inspection is being made and the type of workplace being visited.
All notifications of accidents, ill health and dangerous occurrences are assessed to see if an inspection is needed. Decision factors will include the severity of the injury, potential for recurrence, extent of possible breaches of legislation, type of accident, the past record of the business and any remedial action taken.
Routine inspections are usually made unannounced but, where necessary, the Inspector will make by appointment for instance if they need to see a specific person. They will probably want to talk to managers, supervisors, employees, health and safety representatives and other interested persons. In addition to looking around your premises, Inspectors will examine safety-related paperwork such as:
•health and safety policy statements (if applicable)
•written risk assessments (if applicable)
•plant maintenance and inspection records
•training records
•accident and health records
Inspectors are under a legal obligation to tell union representatives about issues affecting the health, safety or welfare at their workplace which may affect employees. This may be done verbally at the time of visit or by sending a copy of any correspondence to them.
At the end of the visit the Inspector will outline what further action, if any, is going to be taken. In any correspondence we will seek to provide you with useful and relevant advice on what you need to do and what you must do according to law.
What Powers Do Inspectors Have?
The law gives Inspectors a wide range of powers, including the power to:
•enter premises at any reasonable time
•carry out examinations and investigations
•take measurements, photographs and samples
•take possession of an article (telling you why and giving you a receipt)
•have articles dismantled and tested
•require information and take statements
•inspect and copy documents
What Standards Can You Expect From Us?
We will:-
•be courteous,
•be fair and consistent,
•tell you our name, show you an 'Instrument of Appointment' or ID card when we visit,
•tell you our name when speaking on the phone and,
•give help and advice whenever appropriate.
We also aim to respond to complaints or requests for advice within five working days. Many will be answered immediately.
If we are going to write following a visit we will tell you how long it will take. Normally this will be within 10 working days of a routine visit.
We seek to continually improve our performance
Freedom of Information
You have the right to be given information on any premises providing that you have a valid reason for wanting it. However, you will not be able to obtain information if the matter is still under investigation or contains personal details of any individual. In the first instance, you should write to the Council’s legal department who will arrange to obtain the information if they are in a position to do so. The cost is dependant on the time and resources needed to obtain the information although if it is minor information then this is usually provided free of charge.
How to Complain If You Are Unhappy With Us
If you are not happy with any aspect of service (e.g. officer conduct, level of service or the way you have been treated) you can speak or, if you prefer, write to the manager of the person you have been dealing with. The appropriate contact details will be made freely available to you.
South Hams Council operates a complaints procedure to ensure that all complaints are thoroughly and fairly investigated.
Health & Safety Law
The Health And Safety At Work Etc. Act 1974 is the basis for British health and safety law. The Act sets out general duties which employers and the self employed have towards employees and others, and employees have to themselves and others.
The principle of 'so far as is reasonably practicable' qualifies these duties. This means that the degree of risk in a particular workplace or work activity needs to be balanced against the:
•time
•trouble
•cost
•and physical difficulty of taking measures, to avoid or reduce the risk.
What the law requires is what good management and common sense should lead employers to do anyway - to look at what the risks are and then take sensible (control) measures to tackle them.
The MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK REGULATIONS 1999 generally make more explicit what employers are required to do under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Like the Act, they apply to all work activities. The main requirements are to:
•carry out a risk assessment
•make arrangements for implementing the health and safety measures identified as necessary by the risk assessment
•decide on competent people to implement the arrangements
•set up emergency procedures
•provide information and training to employees
•co-operate with other employers sharing the same workplace
The risk assessment process forms the basis for most recent health and safety law.
Some of the main regulations that generally apply, are:
··Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
··Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
··Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulations 1992
··Provision and the Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
··Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
··Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981
··Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989
··Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
··Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
··Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
··Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1969
Where legislation is not specific, then there are other documented means of interpreting the law.
1.GUIDANCE
It can be specific to the health and safety challenges of a whole sector or of a particular process in a number of sectors. The main purpose of guidance is to interpret the law, to help people comply with the law and to give technical advice. Following ‘guidance’ is not compulsory and employers are free to take other action. However, following guidance will normally be enough to comply with the law.
2.APPROVED CODES OF PRACTICE (ACoPs)
These offer practical examples of good practice and give advice on how to comply with the law. They have a special legal status because they have been approved through the legal system. If employers are prosecuted for a breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that they have not followed the relevant provisions of the ACoP, a court can find them at fault unless they can show that they have complied with the law in some other way.
Criminal liability arises from the commission a breach of a statutory duty. Statutory duties are found in Acts of Parliament such as the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulations made under it. The proof of evidence required is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
Civil liability arises from an act or omission recognised in law as giving one individual (or company) the right to pursue a legal claim against another. In health and safety this will principally involve negligence and/or breach of statutory duty. The duty of care required by common law is that a person takes 'reasonable care' if he is in a situation where, if he were to fail to take such care, it can be foreseen that somebody else might suffer injury or loss. Negligence can therefore arise out of a positive act or, alternatively, an omission or failure to act. Cases are decided on the ‘balance of probability’.
Criminal or civil cases can expose a business to significant financial loss directly or through damage to reputation. This may threaten its survival.
More information, including what business must do by law, can be found in free leaflets on the Health and Safety Executive Website or by a whole range of guidance listed here.
