Published June 2014
In light of recent changes, the world of health and safety is changing. Charity trustees, directors and senior managers now need to ensure that their health and safety systems are effective and should consider their role in developing and maintaining those systems to comply with recent legal changes.
What’s changed?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently removed the Approved Code of Practice and guidance (ACOP) and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999(MHSWR), replacing it with new guidance, much of which is web-based. Provisions had previously offered a defence to a charge of failing to comply with the MHSWR. Charities or social enterprises that do not follow HSE guidance must show what they have done to comply with the regulations, demonstrating it is equal or better than the HSE provisions. This is risky business if an incident does occur.
Complying with the new guidance could have significant cost implications as organisations need to constantly check the HSE’s website to confirm the guidance is still in force.
For the first time, the revised guidance focuses on what boards, directors and trustees must do to lead on health and safety. This could further increase the risk to your organisation and individuals in the event of an incident, where the board, directors and trustees have not followed HSE guidance.
In any corporate manslaughter prosecution, it will be open to the Crown Prosecution Service to use a failure by the organisation to follow relevant HSE guidance as evidence. This will be failure to ‘manage health and safety at senior management level’, a main constituent of the offence.
What your organisaiton needs to do
The revised guidance now includes a ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ model for health and safety management, replacing the old ‘POPMAR’ model. We advise taking the below actions to decrease health and safety issues and risks for Directors and Trustees:
- Build a risk profile for the organisation
- Demonstrate Board level leadership on health and safety
- Consider health and safety when making board and senior management appointments
- Have a specific health and safety committee
- Provide health and safety training for board members and managers
- Carry out periodic external reviews of health and safety.
Charity trustees and directors are advised to consider an early review of their health and safety systems and particularly, the role the board and senior managers play. Where necessary, boards should implement the additional measures set out in the revised HSE guidance to ensure they comply with MHSWR requirements.
Our newsbrief covers the following topics: Social values, employment, procurement, and mental health. Click on the relevant subject to read the latest article.
If you would like to read our newsletter in full, please click here for a pdf.