News
Health & Safety Update (August 2008)
Look out for noticeboard changes!
Workplace notice boards do not often make the news, but this
week it was announced that they are set to become emptier over the
next year as changes to both the regulations relating to employers'
liability insurance certificates and the mandatory health and
safety poster are due to come into force in October 2008- the
certificate and April 2009- the poster. Most businesses frame
copies of their certificates and hang them in communal areas. There
is a penalty of up to £1,000 for failure to display and provide a
copy of the certificate to an inspector on request.
The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment) 2008
Regulations will allow employers to display the certificate online,
so long as it is readily available to all employees. The
Regulations also allow employers to keep the certificate displayed
in the workplace if this is simpler.
The removal of the requirement to display the certificate is
part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) campaign to
reduce the administrative burden on businesses by 25%.
The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998
currently require an employer to retain a copy of the employers'
liability insurance certificate for 40 years and display one or
more copies at each place of business, "reasonably protected" from
being defaced or damaged.
The amendments to the legislation will remove this requirement
for employers to retain the certificate for 40 years as the
Government believes the cost of retaining insurance policies is a
burden on businesses and is not effectively enforced by the
HSE.
This has angered both backbench MPs and asbestos victims groups,
as the requirement to retain insurance policies for 40 years was
introduced to make it easier for workers affected by long-latent
period diseases, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, to trace
their employers' insurers to claim compensation.
Additional difficulties are caused where companies have ceased
to trade, but the Government does not believe there is an effective
regulatory solution to these problems and has rejected calls for a
national database of all employers' liability policies as
prohibitively expensive.
The style of the "Health and Safety Law - what you should know"
poster is also to be altered as HSE sees them as currently very
unappealing and rarely read by employees.
The Health and Safety Information for Employers Regulations 1989
(HSIER Regulations) require employers to provide information to
their employees relating to health, safety and welfare at work,
generally by display of a poster or alternatively by giving out
leaflets.
The proposed amendments to the legislation- scheduled for April
2009- allow the HSE to approve and publish new posters and leaflets
which do not need to be updated or added to by employers (which the
current posters have to be) but would still provide employees with
the information they need.
The publication of a new approved poster provides an opportunity
to present clear basic information about employees' health and
safety rights. In particular, the HSE notes that the poster needs
to:
- Be understood by employees who have visual and / or learning
difficulties or poor English reading skills;
- Work in an environment where the risk of being denied
employment rights is high.
Although overlooked in many businesses, the review of the
regulations found that the posters are of value, not least because
in some businesses they may provide the only obvious source of
health and safety information.
The requirement to display the HSE health and safety law poster
will not be removed.