The law requires employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees, as far as is reasonably practicable.    The legal term ‘as far as is reasonably practicable’ means the balance of an organisation’s occupational risks -v- the cost, time and effort required to reduce the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ risks.

There are three tests in law regarding ‘reasonable foreseeable’ risks: –

1. ‘Common knowledge’ e.g. known by most ‘reasonable persons’
2. ‘Industry knowledge’ e.g. technical or industry-specific standards
3. ‘Expert knowledge’ e.g. experts in their field, such as scientists or specialists

The principle of ‘as far as is reasonably practicable’ was set in law back in the 1940’s when a Court found that the death of several coal miners was caused by the collapse of un-shored mine walls.  Other areas of the mine were shored-up, but not in the one-mile stretch where these men were working. The Judge stated that it was ‘reasonably practicable’ to expect the then National Coal Board to spend what was a relatively small sum of money; some time and effort shoring-up the mine walls, because had they done so, it would have prevented the foreseeable consequences of a mine collapse.  The Judge also stated this was both ‘common knowledge’ and ‘industry knowledge’.

Society expects employers to act reasonably and therefore, no-one should be killed, injured or suffer ill-health just because of their work and rightly, the consequences of non-compliance are high for all concerned, particularly the ‘duty-holders’ (e.g. the most senior people in the organisation).

Yet, in 2016/17, 137 workers were killed at work in the UK and 434,000 people were off work for up to 7-days following a work-related accident or a diagnosed occupational ill-health condition, with a further 175,000 off work for more than 7-days.  The HSE states that approximately 70% of workplace fatalities, injuries and ill-health are caused by poor H&S management and were both foreseeable and preventable.

Under statutory law, ‘Duty holders’ can delegate responsibilities but cannot delegate their accountability.  Non-compliance results in imprisonment and/or fines and remedial orders (e.g. Community Service, Improvement or Prohibition Notices).

A Fee for Intervention is now charged to organisations who are subject to HSE investigation and prosecution, to cover their time investigating and preparing the case for Court.

In Civil law, claimants have the right to claim damages for their injuries if they can prove the organisation (or person) owed them a ‘duty of care’, the duty was breached, and the injury was caused because of the breach.

Legal compliance is the minimum an organisation must achieve but good H&S management is good for business and it isn’t about ‘common sense’ but a ‘common understanding of risks and how to manage them’.

Proactive H&S management will result in the organisation’s good reputation remaining intact, resources not being wasted on uninsured costs when things go wrong (see Financial reasons for managing health and safety) and will ensure staff are happy, healthy and at work! (see Moral reasons for managing health and safety)

In 2016 the UK Sentencing Council’s Definitive Guideline for the Sentencing of Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences were implemented.

The 2016/17 data on prosecutions released by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) shows a large annual increase in fines. In 2015/16, the total fines for health and safety offences was £38.8 million. This rose to £69.9 million in 2016/17.

The principal focus of the Guideline is to ensure fines are ‘sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact which will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to comply with health and safety legislation’ (source HSE).

The average fine per case in 2016/17 was approximately £126,000, which is more than double the average fine in 2015/16. The ten highest fines in 2017 ranged between £1.35m and £3m.

There is no doubt that the sharp increase in fines over the past two years is the subject of regular discussion in boardrooms up and down the country.

The increasing level of fines demonstrates the importance of organisations taking preventative action, such as:

• regularly reviewing health and safety policies and procedures
• ensuring risk assessments and method statements are robust and adequately reflect the risks involved, including those to non-employees
• providing refresher training to staff
• ensuring the proactive and effective management of health and safety in the workplace
• completing Fire Risk Assessment, Health and Safety Audits, Workplace Inspections and specific risk assessments.

Safety and Health 1st can provides professional advice and guidance to assist with preventative action, through a package of retained services which aims to ensure your organisation does not suffer from the uninsured costs, losses and bad publicity associated with workplace accidents.

Contact Us

Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors, senior leadership teams and their managers all hold an accountability and responsibility for the health, safety and wellbeing of their workforce in their hands.

Senior managers can delegate responsibilities, but they cannot delegate their accountabilities.

There’s little doubt your senior leadership teams, Board members, Trustees or Shareholders will have an objective to reduce the burden of risk to the organisation from accidents, occupational ill-health and H&S non-compliance.

With Safety and Health 1^st providing ‘retained’ H&S services to your organisation, you will measurably improve the health and safety culture which in turn will reduce accident-injury liabilities and insurance premium and improve staff morale, wellbeing and productivity.