Heath, Safety and Risk Management in Construction By Dave Allen and Paul Whitehead – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial –

Heath, Safety and Risk Management in Construction

By Dave Allen and Paul Whitehead – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Introduction to Health, Safety and Risk Management

in Construction

Section 3: The structure of UK Law with regards to Health & Safety

Sources of UK Law

Common Law• 11th century law courts• Developed to apply common

systems of law• Judicial precedence• Criminal law, Contract law, Law of

probate, Employment law, Law of Tort (civil wrong) -negligence

Civil Law• Compensation• Sue Indv. Vs Individual• Can insure – public liability• County or high courts• Burden of proof ‘balance of

probability’• Statute of limitations Act applies

Statute Law Laid down by Parliament Best course of action for society –

protect everyone Acts, regulations or SI’s Takes precedence over common

Criminal Law To punish State Vs individual/company Magistrates or crown court Fine or jail Burden of proof ‘beyond

reasonable doubt’ No statute of limitations

Murder, manslaughter, rape

DDA, RRA, SDA, OLA

Common Law

Torts for H&S (negligence)There have been several important judgments that have defined the legal meaning of negligence (see notes).Three criteria need to be established:• A duty of care was owed• There was a breach of that duty• The breach resulted in a lossIf an employer is unable to defend the threecriteria two other partial defences available:• Volenti non fit injura • Contributory negligence

Statute Law

Acts e.g. HSWA 1974, Highways Act

Regulations (Statutory Instruments) e.g. MHSWR 1999

Other Supporting documents• Approved codes of practice (ACOP)• Health & Safety Regulation booklets (HSR)• Health & Safety Legal booklets (L series)• Health & safety guidance booklets (HSG)• British and European standards (BS EN)• HSE Miscellaneous guidance General Series (GS)

Statute Law

Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974• Applies to all work• Forms the basis of UK health and safety law• Enabling Act• Based on recommendations of Robens report• Brought in culture change from reactive to proactive• Principle objectives to ensure high standards of health &

safety• Outlines general duties on employers, landlords, tenants,

employees and suppliers.• Outlines procedures for producing regulations and ACOPs• Lays down enforcing powers of inspectors etc.

Statute Law

The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999• Apply to all employment• Supplement the requirements of HSWA 1974• Specify a range of management issues e.g. planning,

organisation, control, monitoring and review of safety measures

• The ‘bible’ for risk assessment• Requirement to undertake ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk

assessments for employees and other people who may be affected by the organisation

• Major responsibility with employer and recognises employee has a major contribution to make.

CDM 2007L144 Managing health and safety in construction

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007Are a management protocol for construction projects. It:• places responsibilities for safety on all those involved• applies to construction workThe aims of CDM are to:1. Integrate health & safety into the management of a project and

encourage working together to improve planning and management from the very start,

2. Identify hazards and eliminate or reduce at design/planning stage 3. Target efforts where it can do the most good for H & S4. Discourage unnecessary bureaucracy

CDM 2007 – Structure

The regulations are in 5 parts:Part 1 - Interpretation and applicationPart 2 - General management duties applicable to all construction projects including those which are non-notifiable Part 3 - Additional management duties applying to notifiable projectsPart 4 - covers physical safe guards which need to be provided to prevent danger and applies to all construction work Part 5 - Covers transitional arrangements, amendments and revocations of other legislation

CDM 2007

Is the project notifiable?

If so then a Form F10(rev) is completed

Will the construction phase be longer than 30

days?

Yes

No

Will the construction phase involve more than

500 person days of construction

No

Yes

Written Notification to HSE required

Notification not required

CDM 2007 – Non-notifiable projects

• Not a formal requirement to appoint CDM Coordinator, Principal Contractor or produce a construction phase plan

• Do require cooperation and coordination• Vital that workers understand the risk involved• Approach proportionate to risks for high risk activities e.g.

– structural alterations– deep excavations in unstable / contaminated ground– heavy complex lifting operations

Something closer to a plan may be required

• Note: for all demolition Regulation 29 requires a written plan showing how danger will be prevented

CDM 2007 – Roles

These regulations identify five key parties namely:

• Client• Designer• CDM Coordinator • Principal Contractor • Contractors

To assist with interpretation of the regulations the ACOP has summarised the roles and responsibilities of the parties

CDM 2007

All construction projects (part 2 of the regulations)

Additional duties for notifiable projects (Part 3 of the regulations)

Designers

Eliminate hazards and reduce risks during design

Provide information about remaining risks

Check client is aware of duties and CDM Co-ordinator has been appointed

Provide any information needed for the health and safety file

Table summarising the Designers responsibilities under CDM 2007

CDM 2007

The ACOP also identifies three key documents to be produced to manage health, safety and welfare during the project. These are the: • Pre-construction information• Construction phase plan• Health and safety file

RIDDOR 95

The regulations require reporting of:

• Deaths• Major Injuries including:

– Fractures other than fingers thumbs or toes. – Dislocation– Loss of Sight even temporary– Injuries resulting from electric shock or electrical burn leading to

unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation.• Over three day injuries – unable to work for more than three consecutive days• Injuries to members of the public or people not at work were they are taken from

the scene of an accident to hospital• Some work related diseases e.g. Leptospirois and vibration white finger• Dangerous occurrences – something that happens that does not result in injury

but could have e.g. Flammable gas incidents and dangerous gas fittings

Other regulations which may be applicable

Work at Height Regulations 2005Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998Manual Handling Operation Regulations 2002The Construction (head protection) Regulations 1989The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006Confined Spaces Regulations 1997

Other guidance which may be applicable

HSG 32 Safety in falsework for in-situ beams and slabsHSG 33 Health and safety in roof workHSG 47 Avoiding danger from underground servicesHSG 144 Safe use of vehicles on construction sitesHSG 149 Backs for the future. Safe manual handling in constructionHSG 150 Health and safety in construction HSG 168 Fire safety in construction workL102 A guide to Construction (Head protection) regulations 1989BS 5973 Code of practice for access and working scaffolds and special

scaffold structures in steelGS29 Health and Safety in demolitionBS 6187 Code of practice – demolitionBS 6031 Code of practice for earthworks

Levels of Statutory Duty

Absolute duty - ‘you must’ ‘you shall’Practicable - technically or feasibly possible then it must be done.Reasonably practicable - if the risk is very small compared to cost, time effort to reduce the risk then no action is necessary note: money, time and trouble must grossly outweigh not balance risk

HSWA 1974 c.37 Part 1, Section 2, General Duties (1) ‘It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees’

The CDM Regulations 2007, PART 3, Regulation 21 Notification of a project (1) ‘The CDM co-ordinator shall as soon as is practicable after his appointment ensure that notice is given to the Executive containing such of the particulars specified in Schedule 1 as are available.’