Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Duty of employer to provide information

5.—(1) Where an employer consults employees directly he shall, subject to paragraph (3), make available to those employees such information, within the employer’s knowledge, as is necessary to enable them to participate fully and effectively in the consultation.

(2) Where an employer consults representatives of employee safety he shall, subject to paragraph (3), make available to those representatives such information, within the employer’s knowledge, as is—

(a)necessary to enable them to participate fully and effectively in the consultation and in the carrying out of their functions under these Regulations;

(b)contained in any record which he is required to keep by regulation 7 of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1986(1) and which relates to the workplace or the group of employees represented by those representatives.

(3) Nothing in paragraph (1) or (2) shall require an employer to make available any information—

(a)the disclosure of which would be against the interests of national security;

(b)which he could not disclose without contravening a prohibition imposed by or under any statutory provision;

(c)relating specifically to an individual, unless that individual has consented to its being disclosed;

(d)the disclosure of which would, for reasons other than its effect on health or safety, cause substantial injury to the employer’s undertaking or, where the information was supplied to him by some other person, to the undertaking of that other person; or

(e)obtained by the employer for the purpose of bringing, prosecuting or defending any legal proceedings;

or to provide or allow the inspection of any document or part of a document which is not related to health or safety.