Health and Safety Executive/Local Authorities Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA)

To: Directors of Environmental Health/ Chief Environmental Health Officers of London, Metropolitan, District and Unitary Authorities and Chief Executives of County Councils.

For the attention of: Environmental Services / Trading Standards / Fire Authorities / Other

This circular gives advice to local authority enforcement officers

---

Health and safety (enforcement authority) regulations 1998 - Motor vehicle repair

Introduction

1 Responsibility for the enforcement of health and safety law in Great Britain is shared between Local Authorities (LAs) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The exact nature of their enforcement responsibilities is determined by the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998. Schedule 1 of these regulations sets out a list of those main activities which determine whether LA's should be the enforcing authorities. Schedule 2 of the regulations list activities for which HSE will be the enforcing authority, whether or not it is the main activity carried out in those premises.

Background

2 In essence, to determine whether or not an LA should be the enforcing authority for individual premises, the enforcing authorities must consider; first, whether its main activity is one listed specifically in Schedule 1 of the regulations; and second, whether any activity carried out at the premises is one reserved for enforcement by HSE.

3 In all cases, therefore, the crux of the decision rests on what is, or is not, the main activity. Where premises are engaged in more than one and, in some cases, several work activities this decision can be problematic.

4 The Regulations make one further provision. Where the judgement of main activity, which prescribes premises for enforcement by LAs or HSE, results in an arrangement which is not practicable or which does not fully recognise the specific individual circumstances involved, responsibility for enforcement can, by agreement, be transferred from one enforcing authority to the other. This is an important mechanism which enables the inevitable complexities of allocation in respect of individual premises, for which the regulations are not able to cater, to be smoothed out with sensible pragmatic arrangements on the ground. LAs and HSE have operated these arrangements in a way which ensures that individual premises are able to find their 'natural' enforcing authority, having regard to the range of individual circumstances involved.

5 This guidance is designed to assist enforcing authorities through this decision making process, for premises engaged in one or more aspects of the business sector known generically as "motor vehicle repair (MVR)", in a transparent and consistent way.

Allocation of motor vehicle repair

6 Motor vehicle repair is a complex business sector which involves a broad spectrum of activities involving motor vehicles. It ranges from car sales, through valeting and servicing, to the complex repair and maintenance of vehicles involving advanced technological engineering.

7 Some enforcement allocation issues surrounding MVR are clear. It is commonly understood that premises engaging solely in the repair and maintenance of vehicles, and which do not engage in any of the categories of main activity allocated to LAs for enforcement, are allocated to HSE. There is similar agreement that premises engaged solely in car sales are retail premises which are reserved to LAs for enforcement.

8 This leaves a considerable range of activity in the middle for which there is no clear model for enforcement. Where a premises engages in more than one activity, the sole criterion for determining its enforcement allocation is its main activity. In the case of MVR, determining the main activity where both sales and the repair and maintenance of vehicles are part of the same operation, has been problematic. This guidance attempts to give some direction to enforcing authorities to determine enforcement responsibility.

9 In the past, enforcing authorities have relied upon judgements of turnover, floor space or numbers of employees (or combinations of these) engaged in each of the relevant activities to determine whether the bulk of the activity is retail sales or the repair and maintenance of vehicles. Each of these methods is unsatisfactory. First, they give an indication of the largest element of the activity rather than whether it is core or main to the business. Second, they are each subject to constant fluctuation and change and do not, therefore, provide a lasting, solid basis for allocating enforcement.

10 Guidance is necessary to help ensure that similar premises in different locations will be treated in the same way.

11 This guidance does this for MVR by listing different types of common scenario and offering a judgement on what is the main activity. The key underlying principle is that if particular premises include a workshop offering the full range of mechanical/electrical or bodywork repairs, the whole of the premises will be inspected by HSE. If there is no such workshop, the whole of the premises will be inspected by the LA.

12 Where individual premises cannot be fitted into the scenarios offered, enforcing authorities should make a judgement based on the general principles espoused in this guidance. Where necessary they can also consider the possible use of Regulation 5 to arrive at a workable arrangement.

13 As the aim of this guidance is clarity and consistency, HSE and LAs have agreed to monitor the arrangements for enforcement of this sector by joining together with the industry in making strategic plans for enforcement across all premises, regardless of who is the enforcing authority. Arrangements for this greater level of co-ordination and liaison among LA's and between LA's and HSE will be co-ordinated by HSE's Engineering National Interest Group based in Birmingham. With this in mind, a tripartite group to be known as the Motor Vehicle Repair Health and Safety Forum has been set up, on which LAs will be represented.

Enforcement Allocation Scenarios

Activity	Notes	Enforcing Authority
1 Repair and maintenance of motor vehicles only.	Garage and workshop premises involved solely in the repair, maintenance or modification of vehicles. They will undertake a wide range of mechanical and /or body repair work.	HSE
2 Breakdown recovery operations	Roadside emergency repair and recovery operations operated either by garages or national specialist organisations such as the AA and RAC. Also includes roadside fitting of windscreens and tyres.	HSE
3 Mobile mechanics	Servicing, repairs and tuning offered to the public and carried out usually on or outside domestic premises by mechanics with no fixed workshop facilities and operating from the back of a van.	HSE
4 Sites with both repair and sales activities	Workshop facilities offering a full range of mechanical and/or body maintenance and repair. Workshop building(s) may be separate from showroom(s) or parts department(s), but within the same curtilage or may be parts of the same building(s)	HSE
	Sites or premises engaged in the sale of vehicles with minor workshop facilities used mainly in support of retail sales. Activities would typically involve pre sales servicing, minor repairs, and adjustments, and valeting. Such facilities would not offer the full range of repairs and maintenance and will not offer body repairs or modifications.	LA
5 Vehicle sales	Sites or premises engaged solely in the sale of vehicles, with no workshop facilities. .	LA
6 Preparation for sale	Premises used solely for preparation of new vehicles for sale, including pre-delivery inspection (PDI) work. May be done by main dealers or by contractors.	LA
7 The retail sale of parts and accessories with attached workshops	These premises will normally be obvious major retail premises to which the public has access, but which may also offer the repair and maintenance of vehicles, as for example, at some Halfords sites. These premises are more likely to offer "menu servicing", but may undertake a wider range of motor vehicle mechanical repair and maintenance. They will not offer body repairs.	LA
8 Repair and maintenance of vehicles in support of other businesses, where LAs are enforcing authorities for these other businesses	It is common for some businesses including offices, warehouses etc. to have some facilities for the repair and maintenance of their own vehicles. Similarly, vehicle hire outlets may have limited repair and maintenance facilities. These activities are usually clearly in support of a different main activity and are not the repair and maintenance of vehicles in their own right. A test might be the availability of these services to others outside of the main activity.	LA
9 Tyre, exhaust, windscreen and related services	Where these are the main activity they are deemed to be the sale of goods by nature of Schedule 1 of the Regulations. Other outlets engage solely in the fitting of towbars, car radios or alarms or sunroofs	LA

Use of Regulation 5

14 Regulation 5 allows for the transfer of enforcement responsibilities, by agreement, between HSE and LAs according to local circumstances. In cases of doubt, when determining whether a transfer in respect of MVR might be appropriate, the enforcing authorities should consider whether:

• a single business is artificially split between enforcing authorities, e.g. by the mere presence of a public road between buildings;
• the business is engaged in the Lead Authority Partnership Scheme or HSE's Lead PI Scheme which would be rendered ineffective by allocation to a different enforcing authority;
• the presence or absence of significant hazards/risks make the allocation inappropriate
• enforcement allocation interferes with the targeting of the enforcement effort locally in a way which results in greater attention to lower risk activities;
• anything in this guidance interferes with established local arrangements which are satisfactory to all parties and would otherwise be retained.

[back to top]