The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.  These Regulations (“the Regulations”) give effect as respects Great Britain(except to the extent specified below) to Council Directive 89/391/EEC on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work (OJ No. L 183, 29.6.89, p. 1) [“the Framework Directive”] and to Council Directive 91/383/EEC supplementing the measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of workers with a fixed-duration employment relationship or a temporary employment relationship (OJ No. L 206, 29.7.91, p. 19) [“the Temporary Workers' Directive”].

2.  The Regulations do not apply in relation to sea transport (regulation 2).

3.  Nor do the Regulations impose requirements with respect to the following matters:

(a)accident reporting (article 9(1)(c) and (d) and (2) of the Framework Directive);

(b)charging of workers in respect of health and safety measures (article 6(5) of the Framework Directive);

(c)consultation and participation of workers and workers' representatives ( articles 10(3), 11(1), (3), (5) and (6) and 12(3) and (4) of the Framework Directive);

(d)employees' general safety obligations (article 13(1) and (2)(e) and (f) of the Framework Directive);

(e)employers' general safety obligations (articles 5 and 6(1) of the Framework Directive);

(f)employment protection rights (articles 7(2), 8(4) and (5) and 11(4) of the Framework Directive);

(g)fire fighting (articles 8(1) and (2) and 10(1) and (2) of the Framework Directive);

(h)first-aid (articles 8(1) and (2) and 10(1) and (2) of the Framework Directive);

(i)risk groups (article 15 of the Framework Directive);

(j)use of personal protective equipment (article 13(2)(b) of the Framework Directive); or

(k)responsibility of host undertakings to temporary workers (article 8 of the Temporary Workers' Directive).

4.  Regulation 3 requires employers and self-employed persons to make assessments of the health and safety risks to which their respective undertakings give rise, for the purpose of ascertaining what they have to do to comply with their obligations under health and safety legislation. Regulation 3 also makes provision for the review and recording of the results of risk assessments.

5.  Regulation 4 requires employers to make, give effect to and in certain cases record appropriate health and safety arrangements.

6.  Regulation 5 requires employers to ensure that their employees are provided with appropriate health surveillance.

7.  Regulation 6 requires employers to appoint an adequate number of competent persons to assist them to comply with their obligations under health and safety legislation unless (in the case of a sole trader or a partnership) the employer concerned already has sufficient competence to comply with the relevant obligations without assistance. Regulation 6, as well as defining “competent person” in this context, also requires employers—

(a)to make arrangements for ensuring adequate co-operation between the competent persons they appoint; and

(b)to provide the competent persons they appoint with—

(i)the facilities necessary to enable them to carry out their functions, and

(ii)specified health and safety information.

8.  Regulation 7 requires employers—

(a)to establish and give effect to procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger to persons working in their respective undertakings;

(b)to nominate competent persons to implement those procedures insofar as they relate to the evacuation from premises of persons at work in their respective undertakings; and

(c)restrict access to any danger areas occupied by them.

Regulation 7 also specifies in detail what the procedures referred to above must achieve and defines what is meant by “competent person” in this context.

9.  Regulation 8 requires employers to provide their employees with specified health and safety information.

10.  Regulation 9 requires every employer and self-employed person who shares a workplace with any other employer or self-employed person to—

(a)co-operate with that other person so far as is necessary to enable him to comply with his statutory health and safety obligations;

(b)co-ordinate the measures he takes in compliance with his statutory health and safety obligations with the measures being taken in that regard by that other person; and

(c)take steps to provide that other person with specified health and safety information.

11.  Regulation 10 requires employers and self-employed persons to ensure that—

(a)the employers of any employees from outside undertakings who are working in their respective undertakings are provided with specified health and safety information;

(b)self-employed persons who are working in their respective undertakings are provided with specified health and safety instructions and information; and

(c)any employees from outside undertakings who are working in their respective undertakings are provided with specified health and safety instructions and information.

12.  Regulation 11 requires employers—

(a)to consider their employees' capabilities as regards health and safety when entrusting tasks to them; and

(b)to ensure that in specified circumstances their employees are provided with adequate health and safety training.

Regulation 11 also specifies when the training referred to above is to be provided and the circumstances in which it is to be repeated or adapted.

13.  Regulation 12 requires employees—

(a)to use machinery, equipment, dangerous substances, transport equipment, means of production and safety devices in accordance with any relevant training and instructions; and

(b)to inform their respective employers or any specified fellow employees of dangerous work situations and shortcomings in those employers' health and safety arrangements.

14.  Regulation 13—

(a)requires employers and self-employed persons to provide temporary workers in their respective undertakings with health and safety information before they commence their duties;

(b)requires employers and self-employed persons to provide any employment business whose employees are to carry out work in their respective undertakings with specified health and safety information about the work to be done by those employees; and

(c)requires any employment business provided with information by an employer or self-employed person in pursuance thereof to pass that information on to the employees to whom it relates.

15.  Regulation 14 enables the Secretary of State for Defence to grant exemptions from the Regulations in the interests of national security.

16.  Regulation 15 provides that breach of a duty imposed by the Regulations does not confer a right of action in civil proceedings.

17.  Regulation 16—

(a)extends the application of the Regulations to and in relation to certain premises and activities outside Great Britain; and

(b)extends the meaning of “at work” so that for the purposes of the Regulations an employee or a self-employed person is treated as being at work at all times when he is present at the premises to and in relation to which the Regulations apply by virtue of that regulation.

18.  Regulation 17 and the Schedule modify the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (S.I. 1977/500) by inserting a new regulation therein, regulation 4A.