Proposals to amend the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997

Consultation ended 28 March 2002

Summary

This document invites views on proposals to amend:

• the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR);
• the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 (FPRegs).

The proposals focus on the so-called 'civil liability exclusion', which applies to both MHSWR and the FPRegs. It is proposed to remove the exclusion, from both sets of Regulations, for breach of statutory duty towards employees. This would allow an employee to bring a claim for damages against their employer, for injury or illness they had suffered as a result of their employer's failure to comply with MHSWR or the FPRegs. A right to bring a damages claim following a workplace fatality as a result of an employer's failure to comply with MHSWR or the FPRegs would also be available (to the employee's estate) if the exclusion were removed. In this document all references to injury or illness should be read as including death as well.