Health & safety bulletin
Health & Safety Offences Act 2008
4th March 2009
The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 came into force on Friday, 16 January 2009.
This new Act will increase penalties and provide courts with greater sentencing powers for those who break health and safety laws, and empower even the lower courts to be able to issue fines of £20,000 for breaches of safety.
This follows soon after the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 being introduced on 6th April 2008, which for the first time, means that companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.
So, Directors and Managers can be imprisoned, companies can face huge turnover-related fines........it doesn't affect us does it? ......why should it? ........we work for a safe company, don't we?
The simple answer is that I believe that we are the safest company in our industry, and do more to protect our customers from the risk of prosecution that any company that I know, but this tougher legislation affects every one of us.
Our safety procedures are very robust, but it is now more and more likely that individuals will face large fines or imprisonment where breaches result in harm.
Under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSAWA) 1974, the company is responsible for providing all employees with:-
- Safe systems of work and plant
- Safe use, handling, storage and transport of goods and materials
- Provision of information. Instruction, training and supervision
- Safe places of work including means of access and egress
- A safe and healthy working environment
Under section 3 of the HSAWA, our customers have a duty to not expose us to risk and provide information about risks which may affect us.
Section 7 of the HSAWA specifies that EMPLOYEES must:-
- Take reasonable care for themselves and others that may affect their acts/omissions etc. e.g. wear specified PPE, follow safe systems of work and not block fire exits
- Co-operate with the employer or other to enable them to carry out their duty and/or statutory requirements e.g. report hazards and near misses, attend training, provide medical samples etc
So in the event of a serious accident on a site, the customer, the employer (us) and the employee (you) may all be questioned under oath and could face heavier penalties than ever before.
This really is nothing to worry about if we continue to be vigilant, follow the safe systems of work laid down and continually assess the risks around (taking appropriate action to minimise them).
We are now seeing clear signs that the more educated, astute customers are choosing to work much closer with safe companies and build stronger, safer partnerships to protect them from potential prosecution, rather than keep tendering work and awarding to the cheapest bidder who might put them personally, and their company, at risk of prosecution under section 3 of the HSAWA.
Despite the current economic climate, my promise to you is that we will not relax our safety standards for any reason; our training programme for 2009 is more comprehensive than ever before, and Xmo Strata plans to strengthen its position as market leader by continuing to pioneer and promote safety as much as it can.