Proposed amendments to Health and Safety Regulations

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has published a consultative document which proposes new Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations. The Regulations are intended to put beyond doubt the adequacy of the implementation by the HSE of the following Directives:-

· The Work Place Directive (89/654/EEC)

· The Use of Work Equipment Directive (89/655/EEC)

· The Personal Protective Equipment Directive (89/656/EEC)

· The Manual Handling Directive (90/269/EEC), and

· The Display Screen Equipment Directive (90/27/EEC)

The HSC is proposing a number of amendments to the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment, the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, and to the Quarry's Regulations of 1999 to deal with errors, in, e.g. cross-references within the Regulations and other problems with them.

The consultation period ends on 1 February 2002.

The proposed amendments are relatively minor and will have little practical effect for those complying with the existing law. They should, however help improve clarity in what the Regulations require.

A brief summary of the amendments is as follows:

The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 (SI 1981: 917)

The amendment alters the duty on employers from having to provide, or ensure that there are provided, equipment and facilities for first aid, to a duty that any first aid room which is provided be easily accessible to stretchers and other equipment and be adequately sign-posted.

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992: 2792)

The reference in these Regulations to "users" or "operators" in regulation 3 would be removed and replaced with “employers. This change at regulation 3 will require employers to modify any display screen equipment and workstations they have that do not already comply. The Regulation is also amended to include temporary of agency workers who are not under the direct employ of the owners of the workstation itself. These amendments now will require all workstations to be compliant. However, the direct employer of an agency worker will still need to take responsibility for eye testing under Regulation 5.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (SI 1992: 2793)

It is proposed that these Regulations be amended to better integrate the requirement for risk assessment from the Manual Handling Directive (90/269/EEC) into the Regulations. It is therefore proposed to amend Regulation 4 to include, amongst the determining factors in deciding whether manual handling operations at work involve a risk of injury; the results of any relevant risk assessment, whether the employee is within a group of employees identified by that assessment as being especially at risk, and the results of any health surveillance provided pursuant to Regulation 6 of these Regulations.

Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (SI 1992: 2966)

The Regulation would be amended to expressly state that personal protective equipment should be provided for individual use, an assessment should be carried out as to whether the personal protective equipment is compatible with other personal protective equipment which is in use and which an employee would be required to wear simultaneously, that such information is kept available to employees and, where appropriate, and at suitable intervals, that employers organise demonstrations in the wearing of personal protective equipment.

These amendments may have minor cost consequences for industry but do clarify an employers duties in discharging their obligations under the Regulation.

Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

A number of amendments are proposed to these Regulations, as follows:

· Ventilation: Regulation 6(3) would be revoked as working in confined spaces is now dealt with by the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997.

· Structural stability: Rather than relying on compliance with duties under the Building Regulations 1991, which do not apply to employers the Regulations would be amended by the addition of a new Regulation 4A: "Where a workplace is in a building, the building shall have a stability and solidity appropriate to the nature and use of the workplace". The effect of this amendment would thus be to place duties on persons in their capacity as employers and to make sure that the hazards and risks that they introduce into the building through their work activities can be safely managed in that building.

· Temperature in workplaces: Regulation 7(1) would be amended to take into account local heating effects created by the sun and it is now stated that excessive effects of sunlight on temperature should be avoided. Also a new paragraph 7(1)(a) would be added requiring that a workplace should be adequately thermally insulated where it is necessary, having regard to the type of work carried out and the physical activity of the persons carrying out the work. These amendments simply add further detail and clarity to the previous requirement that the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings be “reasonable.

· Restrooms: It is proposed that Regulation 25(1) should be amended to deal specifically with the fact that restrooms and rest areas should include suitable arrangements to protect non-smokers from discomfort caused by tobacco smoke and that adequate seating be provided for not only the number of persons at work likely to use them at any one time, but also that the seating is adequate for the number of disabled persons at work and suitable for them.

· Changing rooms and lockers: It is proposed that Regulation 24 be amended to take into account disabled or handicapped employees, and requires that facilities are easily accessible, of sufficient capacity and provided with seating.

· Disabled employees: More explicit duties are to be introduced which detail specific building requirements to be listed at 25(a), namely, that where necessary, those parts of the workplace (including in particular doors, passageways, stairs, showers, washbasins, lavatories and workstations) used or occupied directly by disabled persons at work shall be organised to take account of such persons.

· The Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) produced by the HSC to advise employers on what they should do in fulfilling their duties under the Regulations will also be amended to require that the management or equipment that is needed to protect the health and safety or workers with disabilities as regards their “access, egress and work activity whilst in the workplace be adequately organised. Adequate risk assessments should be carried out to identify any additional risks that the worker with the disability may face as a result of that disability and that this risk assessment should also cover welfare and ergonomic needs. Also, where a disabled workers health and safety needs can be met through an adjustment of the working arrangements, the employer should provide this where the risk assessment shows that such adjustments are necessary for health and safety purposes.

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998: 2306)

The proposals to amend this Regulation deals, in the main, with problems which HSE inspectors have experienced in the event when an employer, acting after acquiring machinery, removes the guards and exposes his workforce to danger. In this event inspectors can only allege a breach of Regulation 4 (suitability) or arguably 5 (maintenance) against the employer.

Proposed amendments to Regulation 10 of PUWER require that every employer shall ensure that an item of work equipment conforms "at all times" with any "essential requirements", other than requirements which, at the time of its being first supplied or put into service in any place in which these Regulations apply, did not apply to work equipment of this type.

"Essential requirements" means requirements relating to the design and construction of work equipment of its type. This would have significant implications for validating compliance when any modification is made to equipment.

Further proposals to Regulation 11 go on to require the provision of fixed guards enclosing every dangerous part or rotating stock bar to the extent that it is practicable to do so, and to the extent that it is not, the provision of jigs, holders and push-sticks or similar protection appliances and the provision of such information, instruction, and supervision as is necessary.

Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998

The proposed amendment merely corrects two typographical errors in Regulation 2(1) when the word "work" was used rather than "lifting" under the definition of "accessory for lifting" and the correction of a wrong cross-reference in Regulation 3(4) when it should have read "(3)(b)" rather than "(5)(b)".

The Quarries Regulations 1999

Three non-controversial proposals are proposed that will improve the clarity of the Regulations for duty holders. Firstly, rather than cross-referring to the Classification and Labelling of Explosives Regulations 1983 a definition of explosives will be set out within the Regulations at Regulation 2(1). Secondly, no difference in meaning was intended between Regulation 33(1)(c) and Regulation 33(4) in relation to the words "completed" and "undertaken", the amendment proposes that the word "undertaken" should be replaced with "completed" in the interests of consistency. The final amendment deals with a mistake in Regulation 45(4) in a paragraph reference (the reference to paragraph (2) should have been to paragraph (3)).

Conclusions

These amendments are in general minor, creating only limited further duties for employers; their main purpose being to clarify grey areas of the health and safety Regulations. However, in some instance the changes may be more far-reaching than the HSE’s commentaries might suggest. Employers should now look again at their risk assessments in relation to personal protective equipment in the light of these proposals, access to disabled workers and ensure that any risk assessments have particular relevance to disabled workers.

The amendments to Regulation 10 and 11 of PUWER are significant and employers should be especially careful to ensure that dangerous or rotating machinery be properly guarded or that jigs, holders and push-sticks be used, and that information, instruction and supervision is provided. Any alterations to equipment, even minor, will need to be carefully assessed and validated against relevant EU “Essential Requirements.

For further information, please contact Mark Tyler or Jessica Burt by e-mail at mark.tyler@cms-cmck.com or jessica.burt@cms-cmck.com respectively, or alternatively by telephone on +44 (0) 207 367 3000.