Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Local authority circulars
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
1 The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (Workplace Regulations), SI 1992 No 3004, came into force on 1 January 1993. This circular highlights the key issues for inspection and enforcement by local authority enforcement officers. Standards for compliance are set out in the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance entitled Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare: Approved Code of Practice ISBN 0 11 886333 9.
2 The Workplace Regulations implement the Workplace Directive (89/654/EEC) via a package of measures consisting of regulations, supported by an Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance. Relevant pre-HSW Act legislation is replaced by means of regulations largely framed in terms of broad objectives.
3 The Regulations extend requirements previously contained in the OSRP Act 1963 to "new entrants premises". They repeal parts of that Act as well as part or all of 36 sets of industry specific regulations or orders.
4 Several new requirements cover matters relating to the physical characteristics of the workplace. Changes have, or are being made to building regulations to avoid conflict. In future guidance on building regulations, the Department of the Environment and the Scottish Office will include appropriate references to the Workplace Regulations. If problems occur, they should be dealt with locally via liaison with local authority building control officers.
5 The majority of the Workplace Regulations update previous requirements such as: temperature, lighting, cleanliness and sanitary conveniences. Therefore, implementation and enforcement of these should be as before.
6 A number of requirements appear to be new or have only applied to certain industries in the past. Most are matters which enforcement officers will have traditionally dealt with using the general provisions of HSW Act in the absence of specific legislation. Examples include: traffic routes, rest facilities, glazing of doors and walls. In these instances, the current level of enforcement should be maintained.
7 There are some provisions which were not previously covered, eg particular requirements as to door structure; window mechanisms; some aspects of rest facilities - including arrangements for non-smokers and pregnant women. Initially, other than in circumstances of significant risk or where employers appear unwilling to comply, LA enforcement officers should concentrate on providing guidance and advice.
8 A few requirements relate to the control of significant risk eg requirements for the fencing of edges where falls could result in serious injury, or where materials could fall from heights onto persons. Duties to control such risks existed under previous legislation, and action to deal with these issues should be taken only where appropriate.
9 In general, where new requirements are introduced the current standards will be acceptable as securing compliance with the regulations, approach to enforcement and the current level of enforcement should not change.
10 The regulations came into force in 2 stages. Workplaces which are used for the first time after 31 December 1992, and modifications, extensions and conversions after that date, should comply with the regulations as soon as the workplaces are brought into use. For existing workplaces (apart from any modification, extension or conversion), the regulations came into force on 1 January 1996 and the legislation listed in Schedule 2 continued to apply until that date.
11 Consequently, there were workplaces which were subject to both existing and new legislation until 1 January 1996.
Example: an existing workplace is extended, and glazed partitions are installed in the existing part, the work being, in each case, started after 31 December 1992. Once the work is completed:
12 The regulations apply to individual workplaces. Buildings or premises may contain a number of workplaces. Therefore, from 1 January 1993:
13 The definition of "workplace" includes means of access to, or egress from, the workplace and therefore covers common parts of multi-occupancy buildings or private roads on industrial estates. It also includes, for example, sanitary facilities provided by the owner of a multi-occupancy site and used by more than one tenant/employer, even when not within an individual workplace.
14 Aircraft, locomotives and wagons, road vehicles and trailers are excluded from the scope of the regulations except for reg.13 (falls or falling objects) which applies when they are stationary in a workplace. This regulation therefore covers access onto the tops of road tankers and the sheeting of vehicles when carried on within workplaces.
15 The provisions of regs. 20-25 in their application temporary work sites such as fairs and other structures which occupy a site for a short period, are qualified by "so far as is reasonably practicable", ie only expect compliance when sensible. Normally it would not be appropriate to require major improvements to the floor of a temporary workstation in the open air. Other requirements apply in full.
16 The regulations apply in full to all workplaces within agricultural buildings. Only regs.20-22 apply to agricultural or forestry workplaces which are outdoors and away from the main buildings of the undertaking; the requirements are qualified by "so far as is reasonably practicable".
17 The Workplace Regulations are not concerned with fire precautions and do not conflict with fire precautions legislation.
18 Potentially, both "persons in control" and employers may have duties in relation to the same set of circumstances; allowing action to be taken against either or both.
19 In the Workplace Regulations a "person in control" of a modification, conversion or extension is not the person undertaking the building but the person in control of the completed structure.
20 The equipment and devices referred to in reg. 5 (1) include both those mentioned in the regulations and those not specifically mentioned, but provided to comply with the regulations. Examples include: heating systems (reg.7); travelling ladders, suspended cradles and anchorages for safety harnesses (reg.16); but not fire alarms or electric points.
21 Regulation 5 (1) requires the achievement of an end result, ie the workplace and its equipment maintained in an efficient state. For certain safety-critical equipment; eg emergency lighting, fencing to prevent falls, and anchorage points for safety harnesses, reg.5(2) requires a system of maintenance to be set up, where appropriate. The frequency of maintenance is not specified since details of individual systems of maintenance will depend upon the device or system under consideration. For some equipment a routine visual inspection will be sufficient to enable defects to be identified and remedied.
22 Regulation 6 (1) does not require local exhaust ventilation, which is covered by other legislation eg the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988 (COSHH). Similarly, reg.6(3) disapplies the requirements of regs. 6 (1) and 6 (2) to "confined spaces". The warning device referred to in reg. 6 (2) should only be necessary in very limited circumstances, eg where effective ventilation of a workroom is essential to secure the health and safety of the occupants.
23 There are 3 main differences between this requirement and those of the OSRP Act 1963:
24 Provision of a "reasonable temperature" involves consideration of what an employer can be reasonably expected to achieve in particular circumstances, as well as the comfort of the worker; eg a reasonable temperature for a corridor is likely to be lower than that for a workroom. The ACOP sets standards for workrooms where people normally work for more than short periods. A short period is not defined but should not normally be considered to extend beyond 2 hours.
25 Achievement of a reasonable temperature should ensure reasonable comfort without the need for special clothing. Although a minimum temperature of 16oc is specified in the ACOP (or 13oC where much of the work involves severe physical effort) it states that these minimum temperatures may not always provide reasonable comfort and may need to be exceeded to provide a reasonable temperature.
26 The ACoP states that a reasonably comfortable temperature and the specified minimum temperatures need not always be achieved throughout each workroom. However, such a "relaxation" is only relevant where they cannot be reasonably achieved. Examples of such rooms are given in the ACOP. In these cases other measures should be taken to ensure the thermal comfort of workers.
27 Where it is impractical to secure a reasonable temperature throughout a room, a reasonable temperature should be provided at each workstation by the provision of localised heating or cooling. Where this is impractical, other measures should be taken to secure thermal comfort; such as by the provision of suitable (thermal) clothing and the adoption of suitable systems of work (eg the time spent in cold areas should be minimised and sufficient breaks in warm rooms should be allowed).
28 Guidance on premises subject to food hygiene regulations is given in paragraphs 44 and 45 ofthe ACOP.
29 Portable thermometers which are available for use on request will meet the requirements of reg.7(3), ie they are not required in every workroom.
30 Paragraph 56 of the ACOP states that "the products of combustion from fixed heating systems should not enter the workplace". This effectively prevents the use of unflued gas heating appliances, which was not the intention. Proprietary unflued fixed heating systems are in use which are not dangerous. Regulation 7 (2) adequately addresses the situation by prohibiting the use of heating system that result in the escape of such fumes, and to the extent that they are likely to have an adverse affect on health or be offensive to any person. And amendment to the ACOP is being considered. In the meantime, enforcement officers should not object to the installation or use of unflued gas appliances, provided they do not constitute a risk and comply with other relevant legislation, such as the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1984.
31 Regulation 8(1) applies to outdoor as well as indoor workplaces.
32 Regulation 8(2) requires employers to take advantage of available natural light when considering the siting of workstations. Enforcement officers should not normally require structural changes to be made in order to increase natural light. Nor should they prevent measures such as the replacement of rooflights by solid roofing (which could reduce heating costs) as long as good artificial light is provided and maintained.
33 The requirement for workplaces etc. to be kept "sufficiently clean" allows flexibility in matching compliance measures to the risk and to the industry standard - it recognises that for example, offices will inevitably be easier to maintain at a high level of cleanliness than a workroom where process waste is generated.
34 Regulation 10 (1) introduces consideration of safety and welfare to the requirement on working space. The ACOP space standard of 11 cubic metres per person is based on the OSRP Act standard and relates to the volume of the room when empty. It is purely a value that does not take into account space taken up by furnishings, etc, and may not yield sufficient unoccupied space to comply with the regulation. Action may be appropriate where cramped working conditions are caused by excessive furnishings, equipment, etc.
35 Strict compliance with the ACOP standard is not expected for certain types of workplace such as sales kiosks.
36 "Workstation" is not defined. HSE recommends that it should be regarded as a fixed and habitual working position, together with the immediate working environment. For example, a worker at an assembly line or supermarket checkout has a workstation which includes the areas reached from the normal working position. On the other hand, a service engineer or a shelf filler is not at a workstation when servicing a machine or filling a shelf.
37 For display screen equipment workstations the more specific requirements of the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 should be used (see LAC L 2/6/54).
38 Regulation 12(1) emphasises that a floor should be of sufficient strength for the use to which it is put.
39 This regulation covers the condition of fixed ladders which are "traffic routes". Mobile ladders are covered by the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 (see LAC L 2/6/58).
40 Regulation 13(1) is broader in scope than earlier Factories Act requirements, extending to any place where workers may go, whether to carry out work or not.
41 Regulation 13(2) ensures that the required "effective measures" should be physical ones where reasonably practicable, eg fencing, barriers and covers.
42 Regulation 13 (4) acknowledges that preventative measures will not always totally remove the risk of injury. Thus, warning signs should also be provided, for example, where maintenance personnel use temporary means of access to change light bulbs.
43 Regulation 13 (7) extends the definition of a "dangerous substance" previously contained in the Factories Act 1961, but still excludes water. Note: the requirement of reg. 13 (5) is qualified by "so far as is practicable" unlike the rest of this Regulation.
44 Regulation 13 (5) applies where a person falls into a silo containing a dangerous substance, for example grain. However, reg. 13 (1) applies where a person falls through an apparently hard surface caused by "bridging'' of the dangerous substance.
45 Regulation 14 has been worded so as to be close to the requirements of the building regulations for England and Wales and to avoid conflict with those for Scotland. "Safety materials" should be interpreted widely, to include not only materials which are inherently robust or break safely (termed "safety glass" in BS 6206: 1981 Specification for impact performance requirements for flat safety glass and safety plastics used in buildings) but also ordinary annealed glass which is thick enough in relation to its area to be regarded as safe.
46 NOTE: THE FOURTH ENTRY UNDER "MAXIMUM SIZE" IN THE TABLE IN THE ACOP PARA 148 SHOULD READ "3.00m x 4.50m".
47 Regulation 17(1) covers not only the layout of traffic routes but traffic management systems and the provision of signs.
48 It may be difficult to provide "sufficient separation" between people and vehicles where layouts and traffic routes have already been constructed. Thus, reg.17(5) is qualified by "so far as is reasonably practicable".
49 The duties under regs.20-25, which concern the provision of welfare facilities, are restricted to include only persons at work (whether employees or robot) for the purpose of establishing the adequacy of these facilities.
50 These regulations permit, subject to certain conditions, men and women to share the use of facilities, regardless of the numbers employed. For a sanitary convenience, shared use is only permitted in the case of a room containing a single WC, where the door to the room can be locked from the inside. Similarly, showers or baths may not be shared unless they are in a room intended to be used by one person at a time and has a door which can be locked from the inside.
51 The numbers of sanitary conveniences specified in the ACOP are based on the OSRP Act which required a higher standard that the Factories Act.
52 There is no requirement for an intervening ventilated space (IVS) either in the regulations or the ACOP. However the ACOP does refer to an IVS as one way of achieving adequate ventilation of sanitary conveniences.
53 The provision of seats in rest facilities is covered by reg.25(1). The provision of seats for sedentary work is covered by reg.11.
54 Regulation 25(3) applies to rest rooms and separate rest areas not forming part of work areas. The provision of good ventilation and well separated, smoking and non-smoking tables in larger facilities may be sufficient to avoid discomfort. However, enforcement officers should note that this regulation requires the avoidance of discomfort, and does not require the employer to demonstrate that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has been eliminated or reduced. They should bear in mind the advice on passive smoking contained in the HSE booklet on the subject (IND (G) 63L).
55 Rest facilities for pregnant women and nursing mothers need only be provided where the workforce includes such women.
56 There are 2 separate requirements for eating facilities both of which have to be considered in every case. Regulation 25(2) (b) requires eating facilities to be provided where food would otherwise be contaminated (incl by dust or water) if it were eaten in the workplace. This replaces requirements for mess rooms in several pre-1974 regulations. Regulation 25(5) continues the requirement of the ORSP Act s.15 in that it requires eating facilities to be provided if food is regularly eaten on the premises.
57 Normally, objection should not be taken to clean areas of workrooms being used for eating, particularly where there is little risk of contamination of by workplace substances or processes.