It may be a lengthy piece of legislation to get your head around, but it’s important to have a working understanding of its contents and how they apply to your organisation, as failure to comply could leave you exposed to health and safety fines and reputational damage.
Indeed, although it was drafted over 40 years ago, the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) is still relevant in today’s working world.
All 121 pages of the Act can be found here . However, if don’t have time to read the document in its entirety (and let’s face it, not many employers would), this guide provides a Health and Safety at Work Act summary, including an overview of its provisions and who they apply to.
The Health and Safety at Work Act etc (HSWA) has been part of the UK legal system since 1974. It was developed in response to the particularly dangerous employment conditions that existed in factories and mines at the time.
Prior to the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act, the UK had no comprehensive legislation that dealt with workplace health and safety. Instead, there was lots of disconnected and unsystematic pieces of sector-specific legislation, with separate laws for factories, offices, shops, mines, construction and railways. These regulations were prescriptive and did not cover technological developments or provide legal protection for the public.
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A number of incidents exposed the dangers of a lack of fundamental health and safety protection for workers.
In 1968, the James Watt Street fire in Glasgow resulted in the deaths of 22 factory workers. The building had previously been used as a whisky bond and high security measures had been put in place, including barred windows. This compromised the escape of those inside the building once the fire broke out. Poor building standards and premises being modified from their original purpose resulted in a number of similarly tragic fires in the 30 years following the Second World War.
In 1974, the year the Act was introduced, a fire at a chemical plant close to the village of Flixborough killed 28 people and seriously injured 36 others. At the time, no UK legislation covered a chemical plant, or even an office, leaving workers and members of the public exposed to risk.
This all changed with the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
In response to the inadequacies of UK health and safety law, and the fact that the Employed Persons (Health and Safety) Bill introduced in 1970 had not gone far enough, a health and safety committee was established, chaired by Lord Alfred Robens. Lord Robens was tasked with creating a piece of health and safety legislation that would be:
The Act was quickly developed and implemented. For the first time, the UK implemented comprehensive health and safety legislation to cover: