Health & Safety - the new Code for local authorities
A National Local Authority Enforcement Code has recently been published. It was developed in response to recommendations by the Minister of Employment that the HSE should have a more prominent role in controlling local authority Health & Safety enforcement activity. The Code is also a response to the UK Government's Red Tape Challenge which aims to cut down on the volume of regulation applying to areas such as Health & Safety.
The Code
The Code applies to England, Wales and Scotland and replaces the S18 Standard which previously contained guidance for enforcing authorities. The Code concentrates on the following objectives:-
| 1. | Clarification of the roles and responsibilities of businesses, regulators and professional bodies. The role of the local authority is very much to support local businesses and organisations which ultimately have the principal responsibility for managing Health & Safety risks to their employees and to the public. Local authorities must police this responsibility and take enforcement action as necessary. The local authorities' approach to enforcement must be targeted to sectors and businesses that are higher risk (as specified by HSE – see below) and local authority staff must be competent to carry out their duties. |
| 2. | Definition of the risk based regulatory approach that local authorities should adopt. The Code's message is that local authorities must target interventions on those activities giving rise to the most serious risks or where the hazards are least well controlled. This may include reserving unannounced proactive inspection only for certain activities and sectors specifically identified by the HSE or where there is evidence that management of risks is lacking. Low risk issues should not consume valuable local authority resources. Action should be proportionate, consistent and transparent while the local authorities should be visibly accountable. |
| 3. | Requirements for the need for training and competence of local authority H&S regulators. Local authorities must ensure the appropriate training is given to their inspectors. They should also review their performance annually and review enforcement decisions as a benchmark regularly. |
| 4. | Explanation of the arrangement for collection and publication of local authority data. Local authorities should have a means of monitoring, capturing and sharing H&S intervention, enforcement and prosecution activity and this information should be made available to the public and to the HSE. Local authorities should also peer-review each other's work. |
High Risk Activities
The HSE have issued a list of activities/sectors which are classed as high risk and which should be subject to active inspection. These include premises with cooling towers (due to the risk of legionella infection), large scale public events (due to the risk of crowd control injuries) and working at height or with cutting machinery.
Local authorities should be aware of this new guidance and tailor their internal procedures accordingly.
