Health and Safety in the Workplace in the United Kingdom
| Autor | Roger M Walden |
| Cargo | Lecturer in Labour and Employment Law. Manchester Business School, University of Manchester |
| Páginas | 78-94 |
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HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Roger M Walden
Lecturer in Labour and Employment Law
Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Introduction
Health, safety and welfare at work continue to be of major concern and often
controversy in the United Kingdom (‘UK’) context. The most recent available
statistics
58 from the Health and Safety Executive59 (‘the HSE’) indicate that:
- In 2013/14 an estimated 2.0 million people were suffering from an illness (long
standing as well as new cases) they believed was caused or made worse by their
current or past work.
- 1.2 million worked in the last 12 months, and a further 0.8 million were former
workers.
- 535 000 were new cases amongst those working in the last 12 months.
- Around 80 per cent of new work-related conditions were either musculoskeletal
disorders or stress, depression or anxiety.
- 133 workers were killed at work.
- The number of working days lost per worker has generally followed a downward
trend since 2000-02, with a corresponding fall in the total number of working days,
from 39.8 million in 2000-02 to 28.2 million in 2013/14.60
- In 2013/14, 23.5 million days were lost due to work-related ill health and 4.7 million
due to workplace injuries.
- On average, each person suffering took around 16 days off work, 19 days for ill
health cases and 7.5 for injuries.
- Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the
majority of days lost due to work-related ill health, 11.3 and 8.3 million days
respectively.
- The average days lost per case for stress, depression or anxiety (23 days) was higher
than for musculoskeletal disorders (16 days).
- Injuries and new cases of ill health resulting largely from current working conditions
cost society an estimated £14.2 billion in 2012/13 (based on 2012 prices).
58 Health and Safety Executive, Health a nd Safety Statistics: Annual Report for Grea t Britain 2013/14 .
59 The HSE is a non-departmental statutory body that has primary responsibility for the encouragement,
regulation and enforcement of health, safety and welfare in UK workplaces.
60 2000-02 refers to 2000/01 injury data and 2001/02 illness data combined.
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Perhaps most noticeable from these figures is the move away from more ‘traditional’
types of workplace physical injury or industrial disease to problems more readily
associated with post-industrial service and/or office based and often sedentary
occupations. The continuing and increasing incidence of work-related stress, depression
and anxiety as the single largest cause of absence –and the lengthy average period of
such absences– is particularly noteworthy.
The legal regime in outline
As is almost always the case in the UK, the law relating to health and safety is a
complex amalgam of statutory regulation and common law principle, with the former
also implementing various requirements of European Union [‘EU’] legislation.
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The primary instrument in the statutory regulatory framework is the Health and Safety
at Work etc Act 1974 [‘the HSW’], which in section [‘s.’] 2 sets out the general duties
owed by employers to their employees. Further sections (in particular ss. 3-7) set out
additional duties owed by: employers and the self-employed to persons other than their
employees; those who control (to any extent) non-domestic premises to persons other
than their employees; designers, manufacturers, importers or suppliers of articles and
substances at work (or any article of fairground equipment); and duties in respect of
health and safety owed by employees themselves at work. This Act is supplemented by
a substantial body of Regulations and Approved Codes of Pra ctice [‘ACOPs’] covering
specific aspects of health and safety. These provisions are all overseen and enforced by
the HSE or other relevant enforcing authority,62 through a system of improvement
and/or prohibition notices with the ultimate possibility in more serious cases of criminal
prosecution.
On the other hand, in relation to individual employees who suffer alleged work-related
injuries (whether physical or psychiatric/psychosocial), the remedy now lies almost
exclusively in a personal injury claim in the civil courts based on establishing a breach
of employers’ common law duty of reasonable care for the health and safety of their
employees.63 It is, however, possible in certain circumstances to bring civil claims for
work-related psychiatric injury based on alleged breach of employers’ implied common
61 For a comprehensive overview of the UK health and safety framework and architecture see BENNETT,
D, 2013, Munkman on Employer’s Liability, 16th edition, London/Butterworths.
62 For example, local government authorities [i.e. local councils] have responsibility for enforcement in
relation to shops and office premises in their areas. Taken together, the HSE a nd local authorities are
responsible for enforcing around 90 sets of such Regulations –a full list of these (with links) can b e
accessed at http://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/statinstruments.htm .
63 This arises both in the civil legal wrong (that is, tort) of negligence and as a parallel impli ed term in the
contract of employment.
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