Proposals for New Regulations Amending the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Public Concern at Work welcomes this consultation and these proposals regulations. We believe that these draft regulations address the concerns we raised in our earlier correspondence with the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Ministers in a practical way and we thank the HSC / HSE for how they and ministers have approached this issue.
The removal of the right of third parties to seek damages from employees in breach of their duties under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations greatly reduces the risk of an employee becoming a statutory fall guy after a disaster and so being forced centre stage in any legal battle. Assuming that obligations under the Framework Directive do create a civil liability, we consider that the proposal to extend this right to an employee's colleagues and employer but no further complies with the Directive while avoiding many of the unintended consequences we feared.
Where such a civil liability does arise under the proposed regulations, the employer will be vicariously liable for the employee's failure. This means that an employee pursuing civil action against a colleague under this provision will in effect be taking civil action against their employer. In the light of this, we hope that in publicity and information about these duties the HSC/E will emphasise the valuable role whistleblowing arrangements can place to ensure health and safety concerns are raised. Such a simple and practical step will assist all employers, but particularly SMEs, to improve their health and safety culture and to avoid speculative claims under this provision. We are, of course, happy to discuss this with you, Neal and colleagues further should you wish.
View our original report on these regulations by clicking here.
View the consultation document from the HSC by clicking here.