What are the main points of the 'Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999'?

Question

Also what are the Employers responsibilities and the Employees responsibilities?

Answer 1

TITLE: THE MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH & SAFETY AT WORK REGULATIONS 1999


SUMMARY:

These Regulations were originally introduced in 1993 in response to an EC Directive. The original Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 have been amended several times:

Management of Health and Safety at Work (Amendment) Regulations 1994
Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations 1997
Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997

Due to the extent that the Regulations had changed they were further amended in 1999 and the HSE revised its Apporaved Code of Practice (AcoP). The Regulations serve to strengthen the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act and aim to state and strengthen employers' common law duty of care and clarify the employers' responsibility to identify health/safety problems and to devise means to combat them. The main requireemtns of the Regulations are set out below.


Application:
The Regulations do not apply to domestic services in a private household nor do apply to masters and crews of seagoing ships. Seagoing activities are covered by the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997. However, the Regulations may apply when a ship is in a port in Great Britain and shoreside workers and the ship's crew work together.


Reg 3: Risk Assessment
Employers and self-employed persons must carry out a risk assessment, covering both workers and others who may be affected by their work or business. The assessment should address the effect of their undertaking, work activities and the condition of the premises.

Employers who employ five or more employees should record the significant findings of the risk assessment.

The assessment should identify how the risks occur and how they affect people, whetehr employees or others who may be affected by work activities. This information will affect the decisions on how to manage the risks, ensuring they are made in an informed, rational and structured manner and the action is proportionate to the risk.

The Regulations state that the assessment should be “suitable and sufficient”, but do not define what this means. The ACoP states that this means that it should identify the risks due to, or in connection with, the work. The assessment should be proportionate to the risk. For example for small businesses with a few or simple hazards, no complicated processes or skills will be needed. However, for large and hazardous sites, the assessment will need to be thorough and thus may become complex. Employers and the self-employed are expected to take reasonable steps to identify risks. Assessments should be appropriate to the nature of the work and should state the time for which it is they remain valid i.e. to specifiy an apporpriate review period.


Reg 5: Health and Safety Arrangements
Employers shall make appropriate arrangements for the efective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of protective and preventive measures.


Reg 6 – Health Surveillance
The risk assessment should identify where surveillance is needed, for example where:

•there is an identifiable disease or adverse health condition related to the work
•valid techniques exist to detect indications of the disease/condition
•there is a reasonable likelihood that the disease/condition may occur
•surveillance will help protect the health and safety of the employees.

A competent person should determine the level, frequency and procedure of health surveillance required. As a minimum, a health record should be kept.


Reg 7: Competent Persons
Every employer should appoiint one or more competent persons to assist in managing risk.
Such persons shall be regarded as comptent where they have “… sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualtities…” to properly assist the employer. The competent person may be an employee or a person external to the business, e.g. a consultant.


Reg 8: Serious and Imminent Danger
Employers shall establish emergency procedures for workers to follow for events that present serious and imminent danger, such as a fire. The procedures should address:

•the nature of the risk and how to react
•procedures to cover risks going further than those due to fire and bombs
•additional duties of persons with specific tasks such as shutting down a plant, or who have had training in controlling an emergency event. Such employees should have appropriate preventive measures available to them
•the role, duties and authority of the competent persons nominated to implement the detailed actions
•specific duties of employers under health and safety regulations which address specific emergency situations
•information on when and how procedures are to be implemented, so that employees have adequate time to evacuate to a place of safety.

Emergency procedures should be written down, and information about them should be available to employees, appointed external health and safety personnel and other workers and /or their employers where necessary. Induction training should address emergency procedures.

Work should only be resumed after an emergency if no serious danger remains. Entry to areas where serious danger remains may be necessary in exceptional cases, and in such situations special protective measures should be taken.

Appropriate external contacts should be in place to ensure that there is adequate first aid, emergency medical care and rescue work provision. In places where there are several employers, one employer may arrange contacts on behalf of all the employers. Contacts with external services should be recorded and reviewed and revised as required. Employees should be provided with information on the emergency arrangements, including the identity of the staff nominated to help during an evacuation.






Reg 10: Employers’ Duties
Employers must make available to employees information on:

•risks identified by assessment
•precautions taken
•evacuation procedures
•risks flowing from shared premises.


Reg 11: Multiple Occupancy
Where the workplace is occupied by more than one occupier, they may need to co-ordinate/co-operate to some degree. Where one employer controls the workplace, the others should help assess the shared risks and co-ordinate any required controls. In many cases, this may only necessitate the provision of information. Controlling employers will have to notify new employers and self-employed persons of any site-wide arrangements.

The duties to co-operate/co-ordinate relate to all statutory duties, except for part II of the Fire Regulations, relating to persons who are self-employed and are not employers.

If there is no controlling employer, the employers and self-employed persons must agree any joint arrangements needed to comply with legislation. Employers cannot absolve themselves of their legal duties by appointing health and safety co-ordinators who provide competent advice.

If the person in control of a multi-occupancy workplace is neither self-employed nor an employer of the persons working there, he/she will still have to co-operate with those occupying the workplace under their control.

Employers and self-employed persons must provide comprehensive information on the risks and the steps taken to control them to persons other than the host employers' employees, such as other employers' employees. The information may be presented directly or by ensuring that their employers give it to them (suitable checks must be carried out to ensure that the information is forwarded).


Reg 14: Employees’ Duties
Employees must co-operate with their employer, so as to enable him/her to fulfil his legal health and safety duties. Employees should notify employers or their appointed representatives of any health and safety issues which may present a serious and imminent danger. They should also notify any general shortcomings in the health and safety arrangements, so that corrective action may be taken, if necessary.


Reg 16 & 17: New & Expectant Mothers
If the risk assessment identifies risks to new and expectant mothers and the risks cannot be avoided, the employer must:
•amend her working conditions/work hours, if reasonable to do so and it avoids the risks. If this cannot be achieved
•offer other suitable work. If this is not feasible
•suspend her from work (on full pay).

The risk assessment should account for all women of child-bearing age. The above steps should be taken once the employer is notified in writing that the employee is pregnant, has given birth within the last six months or is breastfeeding. The employee should inform her employer if she continues to breastfeed for longer than six months and the employer must ensure that workers who breastfeed are not exposed to risks that could endanger their health and safety.

The employer may require confirmation of the pregnancy by means of a written certificate from a registered medical practitioner or a registered midwife. The employer does not have to maintain the above steps if the certificate is not produced within a reasonable period of time.


Reg 19: Young Persons
Employers must undertake a risk assessment before young persons start work, paying particular attention to specified risk areas. If, having implemented control measures, a significant risk remains, young workers (above the minimum school leaving age) may not be employed to do the work unless:

•it is necessary for his/her training and
•he/she is supervised by a competent person
•the risk will be reduced to the lowest level reasonably practicable.

Children at work should be provided with the same information as other employees. However, in addition, their parents or guardians should be provided with information on the main findings of the risk assessment and the controls implemented prior to the child beginning work. This information may be provided verbally, in writing or via the work experience agency. It may also be provided via the child, if the child is believed to be reliable.

Answer 2

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RE:
What are the main points of the 'Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999'?
Also what are the Employers responsibilities and the Employees responsibilities?

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

as far as i was aware all places of work have the same health and safety poster up for everyone to see

Answer 5

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19993242.htm

All the info you need should be here