It might have taken a few knocks over the years but it is still, 35 years after coming into law, a highly important and ingenious piece of legislation, and there’s no reason why it can’t continue underpinning health and safety laws for many years to come.”
Nattasha Freeman, IOSH President

Happy Birthday HSWA!

It is 35 years since the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 came into force to improve and facilitate the protection of the UK’s working population from risks to their well-being.

Since the Act was introduced on 31 July 1974, largely on the basis of the report produced by Lord Robens and the parliamentary committee on safety and health at work in 1972, the number of people killed at work has decreased by almost 75 per cent. Robens’ review identified that the prevailing legislation at the time was overly complex, disjointed and relied too much on State regulation, with too little emphasis on personal responsibility.

The new Act was built around his vision of a goal-setting rather than prescriptive approach to regulation, and provided a framework for the management of health and safety that was able to accommodate changes in the world of work – through the introduction of specific, supplementary regulations – and encourage proactive implementation of best-practice methods and approaches.

The debate over whether the HSWA is still ‘fit for purpose’ in today’s working environment has intensified recently, with concerns from business that the plethora of regulations, ACoPs, and guidance that support the Act are gradually turning the situation into the same complex one that existed pre-1974, while employee representatives feel the lack of prescription and relatively low penalties imposed for breaches do not provide enough of an incentive for employers to effectively manage health and safety.

HSE chair Judith Hackitt, however, has hailed the Act as “revolutionary” and maintains that it remains “remarkably resilient”. Giving the annual Rivers Lecture earlier this year, she said: “Apathy was identified [by Lord Robens] as the enemy of progress in health and safety 35 years ago; today I would cite lack of real leadership based on common sense, passion and care as the enemy. We have the best health and safety regulatory system in the world and we have made enormous progress since the 1970s. But the world has changed – the risks to people at work have changed, and our risk aversion driven by fear of civil litigation has increased. Looking for someone else to blame has become the norm in business and in society more generally. It’s time to reverse that trend and now, more than ever, we need leaders who are not afraid to show they care and to lead the way.”

Calling the Act “a truly brilliant piece of legislation”, IOSH president Nattasha Freeman nevertheless acknowledged that it is not perfect. She explained: “Clearly, with, on average, more than 200 workers dying each year in Britain’s workplaces, all is still not well. With the number of people suffering ill health that they attribute to work standing at more than 2 million, there are new challenges for the Act. But the clever thing about the HSWA has been its ability to change. It might have taken a few knocks over the years but it is still, 35 years after coming into law, a highly important and ingenious piece of legislation, and there’s no reason why it can’t continue underpinning health and safety laws for many years to come.”

From Safety and Health Professional
31st July 2009