Health and safety foundations
Dr Ahmed Abdel-Hadi
Learning outcomes
1. outline the scope and nature of occupational
health and safety
2. explain briefly the moral, legal and financial reasons
for promoting good standards of health and
safety
3. outline the legal framework for the Regulation of
health and safety
4. identify the nature and key sources of health and
safety information. key elements of a health and safety
management system
Introduction
The UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) mission
is:
 To ensure that the risks to health and safety of
workers are properly controlled.
 To encourage organizations to improve health
and safety management systems to reduce injuries
and ill health.
 To demonstrate the importance of health and
safety issues at board level
 To report publicly on health and safety issues
within their organization, including their
performance against targets.
The HSE believes that effective management of
health and safety is :
 vital to employee well-being
 has a role to play in enhancing the reputation
of businesses
 helping them achieve high-performance teams
is financially beneficial to business.
Some basic definitions
Health – The protection of the bodies and minds of
people from illness resulting from the materials,
processes or procedures used in the workplace.
Safety – The protection of people from physical
injury.
Welfare – The provision of facilities to maintain the
health and well-being of individuals at the
workplace. Welfare facilities include washing and
sanitation arrangements, the provision of drinking
water, heating, lighting, accommodation for
clothing, seating and eating and rest rooms. Firstaid arrangements are also considered as welfare
facilities.
Occupational or work-related ill health – This is
concerned with those illnesses or physical and
mental disorders that are either caused or triggered
by workplace activities. Such conditions may be
induced by the particular work activity of the
individual or by activities of others in the workplace.
Environmental protection – These are the
arrangements to cover those activities in the
workplace which affect the environment and,
possibly, the health and safety of employees and
others. Such activities include waste and effluent
disposal and atmospheric pollution.
Accident – This is defined by the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘ any unplanned event
that results in injury or ill health of people, or
damage or loss to property, plant, materials or the
environment or a loss of a business opportunity ’ .
Near miss – This is any incident that could have
resulted in an accident. Knowledge of near misses
is very important as research has shown that,
approximately, for every 10 ‘ near miss ’ events at
a particular location in the workplace, a minor
accident will occur.
Dangerous occurrence – This is a ‘ near miss ’ which
could have led to serious injury or loss of life.
Dangerous occurrences are defined in the Reporting
of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations 1995.
Hazard and risk –
A hazard is the potential of a substance, person,
activity or process to cause harm. Hazards take many
forms including, for example, chemicals, electricity
and working from a ladder.
A risk is the likelihood of a substance, activity or
process to cause harm. A risk can be reduced and the
hazard controlled by good management.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSW
Act)
• The HSW Act resulted from the findings of the
Robens Report, published in 1972.
• Earlier legislation had tended to relate to specific
industries or workplaces.
• Lord Robens recommendations were as follows:
 There should be a single Act that covers all
workers and that Act should contain general
duties which should ‘ influence attitudes ’.
 The Act should cover all those affected by the
employer’s undertaking such as contractors,
visitors, students and members of the public.
There should be an emphasis on health and safety
management and the development of safe systems of
work. This would involve the encouragement of
employee participation in accident prevention. (This
was developed many years later into the concept of
the health and safety culture.).
Enforcement should be targeted at ‘ self regulation
’ by the employer rather than reliance on prosecution
in the courts.
 These recommendations led directly to the
introduction of the HSW Act in 1974.
• The Act is enforced by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE).
• The prime function of the HSE remains the same
 To monitor, review and enforce health and safety
law.
 to produce codes of practice and guidance.
 also undertakes many other activities, such as the
compilations of health and safety statistics, leading
national health and safety campaigns, investigations
into accidents or complaints, visiting and advising
employers and the production of a very useful
website.
• Where the Health and Safety Commission
considers that the law is not functioning well,
it has three main options. It can issue:
• Guidance
• Approved codes of practice (ACOP)
• Regulations.
HSC Guidance has three purposes:
• Firstly to help people understand the law by
interpreting it
• Secondly to help people comply with the law
• Thirdly to provide technical advice.
• An ACOP is produced for most sets of Regulations by the
HSE and attempts to give more details on the requirements
of the Regulations.
• A failure to observe an approved code of practice does not
render a person liable to any civil or criminal proceedings.
• However, a code is admissible in evidence in a criminal
court, and proof of a failure to meet its requirements will
be sufficient to establish a contravention of a statutory
provision, unless a court is satisfied that the provision was
complied with in some other way.
• The HSC considers that a duty-holder who has complied
with an ACOP will have done enough to satisfy the law on
the specific issues addressed by the code.
HSC Regulations are made under HASAWA 1974.
• Regulations may be proposed by the HSE and
approved by Parliament. They identify specific risks
and set out particular actions that must be taken.
• In practice most Regulations are made to comply
with EC Directives.
 Every employer with five employees or more
must prepare and revise a written statement
of its general policy on health and safety at
work, and the organisation and arrangements
for carrying out that policy.
 The Act does not give any further indication of
what the statement should contain, but advice
and guidance notes, which are not legally
enforceable, are available from the HSE.
• As a minimum the safety policy should deal with
the responsibilities of all employees, from the
board of directors down to the shop floor.
• The statement may be used as evidence if a
prosecution is launched under section 37
HASAWA 1974. It should also deal with general
safety precautions, mechanisms for dealing with
special hazards, routine inspections, emergency
procedures, training and arrangements for
consulting the workforce.