THE LAW
The legal framework in the UK is such that it provides a comprehensive set of rules that are designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of both employees and members of the public at any given workplace. The main piece of legislation is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, with additional industry-specific laws applying to provide additional protection for both employees and the public.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME
The law places the duty of care of staff and the public in the hands of the employer. You are required to take all steps, as far as is reasonably practicable, to minimise/eliminate risk at your workplace, and be able to demonstrate that you have done so.
CAN I DO NOTHING?
Not at all.
The law applies to everyone, from the smallest single-employee business to the largest multinational corporations.
Failure to comply with the relevant regulations is a criminal offence, and can lead to any or all of imprisonment, a fine, and an enforcement notice.
The latter can also carry a Fee for Intervention (FFI), which you have to pay for the time it takes a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector to identify any material breach of health and safety law, as well as their time in helping rectify the breach. You are charged at £154 per hour of the inspector’s time, and the clock doesn’t stop from the moment of the visit, until you have come back into compliance and been inspected a few weeks later. This can lead to bills in the tens of thousands of pounds per breach, with major failures leading to hundreds of thousands of pounds in FFI bills. This is separate to any fine.
That, and any injured persons may wish to file civil court action to seek compensation, which carries additional financial and reputational costs.
