DSE research reports introduction

The European Commission is taking steps towards better regulation and has expressed its commitment to simplification. Legislative simplification is partly dependent upon the evaluation of existing legislation. In order to develop an European-wide evaluation methodology, government representatives from member states set up a working group in 2005. The group decided to test a jointly agreed evaluation method through an evaluation of the Display Screen Equipment Directive (90/270/EEC)carried out by each member in its own country. Six countries took part and the final group report and executive summary can be downloaded below. The report will contribute to the deliberations of the EU Advisory Committee on Safety and Health working party on the evaluation of Occupational Safety and Health directives.

HSE commissioned the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) to carry out the evaluation in GB. HSL produced two reports: one went to the EU working group and the other compared the same data with that from HSE’s 1997 evaluation of the DSE Regulations. The reports can be downloaded below:

• Evaluation of the success in Great Britain of the DSE Directive. A comparative assessment of the 1997 and 2007 evaluations
• Evaluation of the success in Great Britain on minimum safety and health requirements for work with DSE equipment
• Executive Summary of Cross National Report of Evaluation of VDU Directive (90/270 EEC)
• Pilot Study on Basis of the Directive on Visual Display Units