Module 4:

Understanding Your Responsibilities

❑ Key learning points:

1. What does the law require you to do?
2. How does the law work?
3. What are the key parts of a health and safety management system?

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What does the law require you to do?
OK, so you know as a manager you have health and safety responsibilities – but what should you worry
about, how far should you go, what’s the best way to do it, when do you stop and what’s there to guide you?

The minimum you need to do is to comply with the law, as the law sets the boundaries within which
companies must operate. However, from what you’ve seen and heard so far, you’ll realize that there are
many benefits to your business from managing safely.

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Reasonable foreseeability – being responsible for everything that is foreseeable would be a
burdensome task. Instead, the law tries to be fair by requiring you to be responsible only for
reasonably foreseeable risks. For example, if you see a trailing cable across a doorway you.

❑ To help you further, there are three tests you can apply:
1. Common knowledge (There are 365 days in a year.)
2. Industry knowledge (Industry knowledge is information on how a
particular company or business functions.)

3. Expert knowledge (A biologist who knows more about a particular

type of fungus than anyone else on the planet)

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1. Common knowledge
You’re expected to foresee what the average person in the street would
have foreseen, as that information is common knowledge. For example, if
the public would have known that working on a roof in a gale without
anything to stop a fall was dangerous, then so should the employer.

2. Industry knowledge
If a safety issue is beyond public knowledge, your company is expected to
have the same level of background knowledge as other companies
working in the same industry.

For example, if a company was using a chemical and didn’t realise how dangerous it was, but the rest of the industry had
realised for years, and had introduced control measures or had replaced it with an alternative, the employer wouldn’t be
able to argue against reasonable foreseeability.
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3. Expert knowledge
Only if you’re an expert are you expected to have expert knowledge. For example, a research chemist would
quite reasonably be expected to understand all the different properties of the substances they were handling,
even if some risks were peculiar to the substance in very specific circumstances, beyond normal use.

In summary, an employer must be able to demonstrate reasonable foreseeability of significant risks covered
by tests 1 and 2 but they would rarely face an expectation under test 3, unless they were an expert.

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 How does the law work?
You don’t need to know the details of every regulation, but you do
need to understand a little more about how the law works in
relation to health and safety.

We said that if the accident had happened because of a failure to manage health and safety
risks in the organization, the regulator may take action, which in turn may lead to
prosecutions, fines and imprisonment. Also, the injured worker may seek compensation for
their injuries.

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Essentially, there are two types of legal proceedings that could take place as a result of the accident: a criminal
law case and/or a civil law action.

▪ Criminal law
▪ Civil law
Criminal law
Employers have a legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act
1974 (HASWA) to manage health and safety risks. This Act is known as a
statute and is created by Parliament – in other words, it’s the law of the
land. As you can imagine, there are many statutes relating to a whole
range of issues, not just health and safety matters.
Statutes can be used in criminal and civil cases. Where the statute allows for criminal proceedings, the type of
law created is criminal law, breaches of which can be punished through imprisonment, fines and/or remedial
orders.
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▪ This type of law is proactive – it’s designed to encourage prevention and avoidance – and reactive – it
provides punishment for lawbreakers.

▪ In criminal law, the case against the accused must be proved by the prosecution. So, in this case, the State
or its representative has the ‘burden of proof’. The level of proof required is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
However, for breaches of some sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act, etc. 1974, the defendant
must prove that it was not reasonably practicable to do more than they did to satisfy their duty. This is
referred to as the 'reverse burden of proof'.

▪ Penalties for criminal offenses can be imprisonment, fines, and/or remedial orders.
The severity of the penalty depends on the seriousness of the crime. These fines come
out of the company’s bottom line – they’re not covered by insurance policies.
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Civil law action
In civil law, victims of harm or loss, caused by the fault or negligence of another party, can seek
compensation for that harm.

Usually, the legal action must start within three years

of the accident or when the injured person finds that
the injury was the fault of the employer. The amount of
compensation awarded depends on the nature of the
injury and its effect on the person’s ability to earn a
living.

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 ❑ Effective health and safety management systems include the following elements:

Policy
Say what you’re going to do
– a statement of commitment by the organisation’s senior management to comply with health and
safety law and meet ethical and professional responsibilities for health and safety. If you employ five
or more people it is a legal requirement to have a written health and safety policy.

Planning
Plan how you’re going to do it
– a plan for hazard identification, risk assessment, and risk control, being prepared for
emergencies and response, together with identification of the relevant legal and other
standards that might apply to your organization.

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 Organizing
Get the people in place
– a definition of who’s responsible for what in terms of health and safety and how to make sure that
everyone’s capable of fulfilling their responsibilities. You also need to consult on health and safety
matters – there’s a fund of knowledge and expertise within the workforce, clients, suppliers, and
other stakeholders that can help you. And remember communication – from basic information and
work procedures to how the system works – is vital.

Implementing and operating

Doing it – the process of putting in place the plans and getting involved in all the
necessary activities, from risk assessment, through safe systems of work, to audit.

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 Measuring performance
Find out how well you’re doing
– from reactive data (for example, on injuries and ill health) to active data (such as
on inspections and training). This will give you an indication of whether your actions
are working. Audits will help you judge whether the whole system is working. You’ll
need to make adjustments as necessary.

Review and continual improvement

Overall, does the system work and how can we make it better?
– an evaluation of the overall design and resourcing of the system compared with the performance
achieved. It shows a commitment to manage health and safety risks proactively so that accidents and ill
health are reduced and/or the system achieves its goals using fewer resources.

A number of health and safety management systems have been published, but all reflect the plan–do–check–act cycle. Some
of the widely used health and safety management systems/standards include: BS 18004:2008, HSG65, and OHSAS 18001.
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