Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Section 18:
Standard on Enforcement
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Local Authorities (LAs) are the principal Enforcing Authorities (EAs) for Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) in Great Britain.
The primary purpose of the HSWA is to control risks from work activities. The role of the EAs is to ensure that duty holders manage and control these risks and thus prevent harm to employees and to the public.
HSE and LAs both have a duty to ‘make adequate arrangements for enforcement’ under Section 18 of HSWA. In complying with their duties under section 18, EAs are required to follow the HSC Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS) on the purpose, method and principles of enforcement.
The Section 18 Standard adds to the EPS, setting out the broader requirements for EAs when complying with their duty to make ‘adequate arrangements for enforcement’. It applies to LAs and to HSE when carrying out its functions undertaken by Field Operations Directorate (FOD). EAs are legally required, from 1st April 2008, to work towards compliance with the principles and standards set out in the following pages. From 31st March 2011, compliance is mandatory. The Annex sets out in more detail the legal staus of the Standard. Like the EPS, it acts both as a HSC direction to HSE under S11(4)(b) and as HSC guidance to LAs under S18(4)(b). The document meets the relevant regulator requirements of the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform’s Regulators’ Compliance Code and supports, and is consistent with, the standards set down by Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee (SLIC) in the Common Principles for Labour Inspection in EU Member States."
The standard recognises that “partnership is the way HSE and LAs do business” and reflects the following Statement of Intent agreed between the HSC, HSE and LA representative bodies:
‘LAs and HSE, working jointly and in partnership locally, regionally and nationally, to a common set of goals and standards, committed to focusing resources on agreed health and safety priorities. The aim is to minimise harm to those in the workplace or those affected by workplace activities, and contribute to the health and safety and well-being of the local community’
The e-links shown within this document form essential support to the standard and are intended to provide up to date guidance and information to EAs on their legal duties.
The following pages set out for Enforcing Authorities:
Like the EPS, the Section 18 Standard applies to all LAs and to HSE in relation to the enforcement activities of its Field Operations Directorate (FOD).
The S18 Standard sets out the requirements with which HSE and LA’s will eventually be obliged to comply in making ‘adequate arrangements for enforcement’. It has been given legal effect both as a HSC direction to HSE under section (4)(b) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) and as HSC guidance to LAs under section 18(4)(b) of HSWA (section 18 guidance). HSWA requires LAs to perform their duties as enforcing authorities in accordance with Section 18 guidance and requires HSE to give effect to any directions issued to it by the HSC. However, although the Standard will have effect from 1st April 2008, it does not require immediate full compliance with its requirements. Instead, both LAs and FOD are required:
Following the expected merger of HSC and HSE, the Standard will remain in effect and EAs will continue to be legally obliged to work towards compliance with its requirements, and to comply fully by March 2011. In relation to LAs, it will continue in force as section 18 guidance as though issued by the new Executive; in relation to HSE, the new Executive will publicly undertake to comply.
HSE and Local Authority Liaison Committee (HELA) will provide further advice to enforcing authorities on achieving full compliance against the S18 Standard by 31st March 2011.
