Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) (formerly the DTI). HSE interest.
The Services Directive was adopted on 12 December 2006 and creates a free market for the services sector in the European Union (EU), to match the existing ones for goods, people and capital. Member States have three years to transpose the Directive, which will enter into force by the end of 2009.
The Directive requires Member States’ Governments to simplify procedures and remove barriers to cross-border service provision
The main point of controversy over the first version of the proposed Directive was centered on the ’country of origin principle’. This said that a company offering its services in another country would operate according to the rules and regulations of its home country.
HSC was concerned as this proposal could have undermined standards of health and safety in the UK, so HSC/E worked with the DTI to achieve the key negotiating objectives of upholding UK standards on health and safety in all circumstances and maintaining high standards of protection for workers.
Labour law, including law on the health and safety of workers is specifically excluded from scope. However, UK health and safety law also covers the safety of others who might be affected by a work activity, including the public. The ‘freedom to provide services’ provision, introduced by the European Parliament, ensures that Member States will be permitted to impose national requirements provided they are justified for reasons of public policy, public security (this includes public safety), public health or the protection of the environment. This means that HSE and local authority inspectors will continue to be able to enforce against service providers from Member States in the same way as against established service providers.
Other points of interest from the Directive are:
Government Departments including HSE have been screening their legislation to determine whether any legislative and administrative requirements fall within the scope of the Directive. Also, which procedures and formalities might need to be accessible through the Point of Single Contact - a website where service providers can find information and complete all the formalities - instead of them dealing with different authorities at national, regional and local level. Work has also begun to identify competent authorities and any current links with similar competent authorities in other Member States. Work has also begun on setting up a point of single contact.
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform held one cross-departmental public consultation exercise covering all aspects of the implementation of the Directive. The consultation document was published on 5 November 2007 with a closing date of 11 February 2008. The Government’s response to the consultation exercise was published on 19 June 2008.
The results of the national screening programme are expected to be published in spring 2009.
Member States must implement the Directive by 28 December 2009, after which they must report to the European Commission on their progress and will then peer-review implementation by other Member States.
