Risk Based Decision
September 2006: The UK's
Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) requires
people with obligations under the Act to take
safety precautions "so far as is reasonably
practicable". This is a risk based decision, which has close equivalence with
New Zealand's "all practicable steps".
What the EU wants
The European Commission contends that this wording does not go far enough in
implementing the EU's framework directive on health and safety - Directive
89/391/EEC.
The Directive has an important difference in its requirements in that it requires the employer to take action in ALL cases unless in "very special circumstances". This appears to be an inclusive approach, whereas the UK wording and that of NZ's HSE Act permits an employer to justify only taking actions that are proportionate to the risk.
A change to the current wording would lead to a significant impact on how employers have to apply their obligations under the law. According to Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) if the Commission has its way, Britain will no longer be able to focus on significant risks and leave trivial ones alone. Instead all risks, no matter how small, will have to be equally assessed and controlled.
The President of IOSH, Neil Budworth, commented:
"If the UK Government loses the case, health and safety in this country could be turned back 40 years. All of our current legislation will have to be re-written and employers will be required to assess every risk, regardless of how small that risk is. The effect of this will be profound. It will drown many companies in red tape at a time when our profession, and the Health and Safety Executive, are doing their utmost to balance the scale of the risk against the effort to control it." [ See our article Should Health and Safety rule our lives? ]
"The call by the European Commission for the UK to change its method of assessing risk comes despite the fact the UK has one of the best health and safety records in Europe".
"If this decision goes against the UK Government, all of the work we've put in to win confidence in the present system will be lost. We urge the Government to defend this case to the hilt, and call for the EC to drop this ridiculous case."
The European Court is not expected to give its final judgment until next year, although The ECJ's Advocate General will deliver an opinion on the case in due course.
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