Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Where did it come from and why? HASWA 1974 Safety Inspectors UK

The HASWA 1974

Before diving into more detail and to help you better understand the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 it is worth noting a few things.
What is an Act
Firstly it’s important to understand that an Act of Parliament creates and new law or changes an existing law. An act is a ‘Bill’ that has been approved by both the house of Commons and House of Lords and been given Royal Assent by the Monarch.

Employment Law Pre 1974
Since the Employed Persons (Health & Safety) Bill introduced in 1970 did not go far enough, Lord Alfred Robens was tasked with creating a piece of health and safety legislation that would be:
• Easy to follow; and
• Flexible enough to be applied regardless of an organisation’s size or risk.

In fact, before 1974 no UK legislation covered a chemical plant, or even an office leaving workers and members of public exposed to risk. (Fixborough) (James Warr Street Fire)
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
The Health and Safety at work etc Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational HSW in the UK, and has several abbreviations
HSWA
HASWA
HASAWA
It is worth noting that Acts are sometimes supported by Approved Code of Practices, Regulations and Guidance to help users to apply the principles of the act. One of the supporting instruments under the HASWA 1974 is the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 which sets out more explicitly what employers are required to do under the HASWA 1974. (We will cover Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 in a separate video)
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Objectives
While the Act itself is considerable, it is clear the delivery of health and safety should be simple and in fact an integral part of how business operate. It does this by setting out a fundamental structure and authority, for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare within the United Kingdom.
The Act also defines general duties on
employers,
employees,
contractors,
suppliers of goods and substances for use at work,
persons in control of work premises,
and those who manage and maintain them,
and persons in general.

HASWA Success Post 1974.
To give some idea of the success of this Act …
it is reported that between 1974 and 2007,
The number of fatal injuries to employees fell by 73 per cent
The number of reported non-fatal injuries fell by 70 per cent.
According to the most recent years for which figures are available, Britain had the lowest rate of fatal injuries in the European Union. (2003 Source Wikipedia)

HASWA Application
HASWA 1974 is broken down into a number of sections with various sub sections.

One of the terms now commonly recognised is “reasonable practicable”, we cover this term and risk assessments more in one of our other videos but for the purpose of this demonstration “reasonably practicable is term can be simplified by stating that…. the degree of risk in a particular situation can be balanced against the time, trouble, cost and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the risk.

For employers (for example), there are four main sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act to be aware of. These are
(Below is a Health and Safety Work Act summary of the duties employers owe to their employees and others that may be affected by their activities.)

Section 2
This places a duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and well being of all employees at work.

Section 3
This provides that employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure the health and safety of any non-employees who may be affected by the conduct of their undertaking. This includes members of the public, contractors and visitors.

Section 7
This states that employees themselves have a duty to take reasonable care for their own health and safety. They must also protect the health and safety of other workers and anybody else who may be affected by their actions or omissions at work.

Section 33
This places a duty on directors and senior managers and provides that they may be prosecuted if it is found that an offence committed by the company was committed with their consent, their connivance, or was attributable to their neglect.
These duties apply in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Its fair to say that the Health and Safety at work Act 1974 has stood the test of time
It established a system of public supervision through the creation of the Health and Safety Commission and Health and Safety Executive, who have now merged to bring together their powers and functions. We now refer to these as HSE (Health and Safety Executive)
This Health and Safety at Work Act bestows extensive enforcement powers, ultimately backed by criminal sanctions extending to unlimited fines and even imprisonment. Which we cover in a separate video.