Study of Court Judgements in personal injury claims for RSI shows HSE guidance and regulations can be misinterpreted

HSE Press Release E180:02 - 27 September 2002

Court interpretations of regulations and guidance about work-related repetitive strain injury may differ from what was intended, according to research published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Researchers looked at the results of cases about claims for personal injuries involving RSI, also known as upper limb disorders. As there is no central archive, the researchers collected transcripts of judgements and developed a website to encourage the exchange of information on relevant cases.

This research is one of several tools that can help HSE evaluate the effectiveness of regulations and guidance. It highlights issues the courts consider important when they are examining how well employers have discharged their duty of care towards employees who may be at risk of RSI.

Trevor Shaw of HSE's Human Factors Unit will launch the report at the annual conference of the RSI Association tomorrow, Saturday. He said:

"This work has provided evidence that courts consider some issues not covered explicitly in HSE guidance and court interpretations and findings may differ from those that would be expected by most lay readers. It is useful for HSE to note these findings. It can help us write guidance which can be interpreted correctly and consistently by employers, employees and the courts.

"As part of the Health and Safety Commission's Priority Programme on musculoskeletal disorders, we are considering how best to disseminate health and safety knowledge. However we recognise that good quality, authoritative guidance will always be necessary. It provides a vital tool that helps stakeholders - employers, employees, inspectors, health and safety professionals and others work towards the targets for reducing musculoskeletal ill health and working days lost."

The fully-revised guidance booklet 'Upper limb disorders in the workplace', was issued in February and HSE is now working on amendments to the guidance on the Display Screen Equipment Regulations, due to be published early next year.

Due to the time lag between occurrence of an injury and the court giving a judgment, which is typically six years, this research was only able to obtain limited information about the interpretation of the most recent legislation such as the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 and the Health and Safety Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992.

Notes to editors

1. This project was part of HSE's ongoing programme of biomedical research. The HSC's musculoskeletal disorders Priority Programme aims to reduce the incidence of work-related illness involving musculoskeletal disorders by 20 per cent, and reduce the number of working days lost due to these disorders by 30 per cent over the next eight years. HSE aims to achieve the targets in the programme by communicating effectively with all stakeholders to encourage ownership of the plan and its outputs, keeping them informed, and giving them opportunities to contribute, revising the strategy as necessary.

2. The research was funded by HSE and carried out by Loughborough University. Full details of the findings can be found in HSE's research report 010 entitled 'How the Courts are interpreting HSE guidance and health and safety regulations: An exploratory study of Court Judgements in personal injury claims for WRULDs'.

3. The website set up as part of the research can be viewed at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/wruld-db

4. Guidance booklet 'Upper limb disorders in the workplace' (HSG60, ISBN 0 7176 1978 8) is available from HSE Books, price £9.50.

RR010 'How the Courts are interpreting HSE guidance and health and safety regulations: An exploratory study of Court Judgements in personal injury claims for WRULDs' is available on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/

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