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What governs health and safety in the workplace?

Often referred to as HASAW, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is an Act of Parliament and the main piece of health and safety legislation in Great Britain.
It places a duty on all employers “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work” of all their employees.

We all have a duty to comply with health and safety in the workplace, even when working from home. UK health and safety has evolved over several hundreds of years and was formalised in 1974. It is a very complex Act of Parliament which was designed to be fluid so that it could react to changes in business and technology. Nobody can be expected to be an expert, but for the sake of simplicity, and to get a basic understanding, The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 key points can be summarised below.

Health & Safety at Work Act 1974

At the end of the day, you didn’t start a business to become a health and safety law expert. However, as a business owner, you are expected to adopt a robust policy of safety and health and safety throughout your business. If you are competent and confident enough to put this in place yourself then there is a huge amount of information out there to assist you.

On the other hand you may not feel this is your area of expertise, or simply may not have the time or resources to devote to it. In this case the law then expects you appoint the services of a suitably qualified and experienced advisor from outside your organisation.

This is known as competent assistance, and is a requirement of section 7 of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations.

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