Health
and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. (Elizabeth II 1974. Chapter
37)
PB - PUBLISHER: London : HMSO, 1974, reprinted 1991 PY - PUBLICATION YEAR: 1974 SE -
SERIES: Statutes in force IS - ISBN or ISSN: ISBN 0105437743 NT - NOTES: Corrections
Errors appear in the first impression (October 1974) of this Act and the following
correction have been incorporated into this reprint: Page 86. Section 80(1), line 5, 4th
word for "or" read "of" Page 86. Section 80(2) (b), line 1, 6th word
for "or" read "order" £11.10 net PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY PAUL FREEMAN
Controller and Chief Executive of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and Queen's Printer of
Acts of Parliament. Reprinted in the Standard Parliamentary Page Size. 1st Impression
October 1974 18th Impression August 1991 GP - GROUP: LU-UK-legislation SC - SERIES CODE:
STA ST - SERIES TITLE INDEX: Statutes-in-Force (Acts-of-Parliament) UD - UPDATE DATE:
199206 AN - ACCESSION NUMBER: 00580
1974 CHAPTER 37
An Act to make further provision for securing the health, safety and welfare of persons
at work, for protecting others against risks to health or safety in connection with the
activities of persons at work, for controlling the keeping and use and preventing the
unlawful acquisition, possession and use of dangerous substances, and for controlling
certain emissions into the atmosphere; to make further provision with respect to the
employment medical advisory service; to amend the law relating to building regulations,
and the Building (Scotland) Act 1959; and for connected purposes.
[31st July 1974] BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Part I Health, Safety and Welfare in connection with Work, and Control of Dangerous
Substances and Certain Emissions into the Atmosphere
Preliminary
1. (1) The provisions of this Part shall have effect with a Preliminary. view to
- (A) securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work;
- (B) protecting persons other than persons at work against risks to health or safety
arising out of or in connection with the activities of persons at work;
- (C) controlling the keeping and use of explosive or highly flammable or otherwise
dangerous substances, and generally preventing the unlawful acquisition, possession and
use of such substances; and
- (D) controlling the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances
from premises of any class prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph.
(2) The provisions of this Part relating to the making of
health and safety regulations and agricultural health and safety regulations and the
preparation and approval of codes of practice shall in particular have effect with a view
to enabling the enactments specified in the third column of Schedule 1 and the
regulations, orders and other instruments in force under those enactments to be
progressively replaced by a system of regulations and approved codes of practice operating
in combination with the other provisions of this Part and designed to maintain or improve
the standards of health, safety and welfare established by or under those enactments.
(3) For the purposes of this Part risks arising out of or in connection with the
activities of persons at work shall be treated as including risks attributable to the
manner of conducting an undertaking, the plant or substances used for the purposes of an
undertaking and the condition of premises so used or any part of them.
(4) References in this Part to the general purposes of this Part are references to
the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) above.
General duties
General duties of employers to their employees.
2. (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.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of an employer's duty under the preceding
subsection, the matters to which that duty extends include in particular
- (A) the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as
is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;
- (B) arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and
absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of
articles and substances;
- (C) the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is
necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of
his employees;
- (D) so far as is reasonably practicable as regards any place of work under the
employer's control, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to
health and the provision and maintenance of means of access to and egress from it that are
safe and without such risks;
- (E) the provision and maintenance of a working environment for his employees that
is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as
regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work.
(3) Except in such cases as may be prescribed, it shall be
the duty of every employer to prepare and as often as may be appropriate revise a written
statement of his general policy with respect to the health and safety at work of his
employees and the organisation and arrangements for the time being in force for carrying
out that policy, and to bring the statement and any revision of it to the notice of all of
his employees.
(4) Regulations made by the Secretary of State may provide for the appointment in
prescribed cases by recognised trade unions (within the meaning of the regulations) of
safety representatives from amongst the employees, and those representatives shall
represent the employees in consultations with the employers under subsection (6) below and
shall have such other functions as may be prescribed.
(5) Regulations made by the Secretary of State may provide for the election in
prescribed cases by employees of safety representatives from amongst the employees, and
those representatives shall represent the employees in consultations with the employers
under subsection (6) below and may have such other functions as may be prescribed.
(6) It shall be the duty of every employer to consult any such representatives
with a view to the making and maintenance of arrangements which will enable him and his
employees to cooperate effectively in promoting and developing measures to ensure the
health and safety at work of the employees, and in checking the effectiveness of such
measures.
(7) In such cases as may be prescribed it shall be the duty of every employer, if
requested to do so by the safety representatives mentioned in subsections (4) and (5)
above, to establish, in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State, a
safety committee having the function of keeping under review the measures taken to ensure
the health and safety at work of his employees and such other functions as may be
prescribed.
General duties of employers and self-employed to persons other than their
employees.
3. (1) It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a
way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment
who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.
(2) It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking
in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons
(not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to
their health or safety.
(3) In such cases as may be prescribed, it shall be the duty of every employer and
every self-employed person, in the prescribed circumstances and in the prescribed manner,
to give to persons (not being his employees) who may be affected by the way in which he
conducts his undertaking the prescribed information about such aspects of the way in which
he conducts his undertaking as might affect their health or safety.
General duties of persons concerned with premises to persons other than their
employees.
4. (1) This section has effect for imposing on persons duties in relation to those
who
- (A) are not their employees; but
- (B) use non-domestic premises made available to them as a place of work or as a
place where they may use plant or substances provided for their use there,
and applies to premises so made available and other
non-domestic premises used in connection with them.
(2) It shall be the duty of each person who has, to any extent, control of
premises to which this section applies or of the means of access thereto or egress
therefrom or of any plant or substance in such premises to take such measures as it is
reasonable for a person in his position to take to ensure, so far as is reasonably
practicable, that the premises, all means of access thereto or egress therefrom available
for use by persons using the premises, and any plant or substance in the premises or, as
the case may be, provided for use there, is or are safe and without risks to health.
(3) Where a person has, by virtue of any contract or tenancy, an obligation of any
extent in relation to
- (A) the maintenance or repair of any premises to which this section applies or any
means of access thereto or egress therefrom; or
- (B) the safety of or the absence of risks to health arising from plant or
substances in any such premises; that person shall be treated, for the purposes of
subsection (2) above, as being a person who has control of the matters to which his
obligation extends.
(4) Any reference in this section to a person having control
of any premises or matter is a reference to a person having control of the premises or
matter in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking
(whether for profit or not).
General duty of persons in control of certain premises in relation to harmful
emissions into atmosphere.
5. (1) It shall be the duty of the person having control of any premises of a
class prescribed for the purposes of section 1(1)(D) to us the best practicable means for
preventing the emission into the atmosphere from the premises of noxious or offensive
substances and for rendering harmless and inoffensive such substances as may be so
emitted.
(2) The reference in subsection (1) above to the means to be used for the purposes
there mentioned includes a reference to the manner in which the plant provided for those
purposes is used and to the supervision of any operation involving the emission of the
substances to which that subsection applies.
(3) Any substance or a substance of any description prescribed for the purposes of
subsection (1) above as noxious or offensive shall be a noxious or, as the case may be, an
offensive substance for those purposes whether or not it would be so apart from this
subsection.
(4) Any reference in this section to a person having control of any premises is a
reference to a person having control of the premises in connection with the carrying on by
him of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not) and any duty
imposed on any such person by this section shall extend only to matters within his
control.
General duties of manufacturers etc. as regards articles and substances for use
at work.
6. (1) It shall be the duty of any person who designs, manufactures, imports or
supplies any article for use at work
- (A) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the article is so designed
and constructed as to be safe and without risks to health when properly used;
- (B) to carry out or arrange for the carrying out of such testing and examination as
may be necessary for the performance of the duty imposed on him by the preceding
paragraph;
- (C) to take such steps as are necessary to secure that there will be available in
connection with the use of the article at work adequate information about the use for
which it is designed and has been tested, and about any conditions necessary to ensure
that, when put to that use, it will be safe and without risks to health.
(2) It shall be the duty of any person who undertakes the
design or manufacture of any article for use at work to carry out or arrange for the
carrying out of any necessary research with a view to the discovery and, so far as is
reasonably practicable, the elimination or minimisation of any risks to health or safety
to which the design or article may give rise.
(3) It shall be the duty of any person who erects or installs any article for use
at work in any premises where that article is to be used by persons at work to ensure, so
far as is reasonably practicable, that nothing about the way in which it is erected or
installed makes it unsafe or a risk to health when properly used.
(4) It shall be the duty of any person who manufactures, imports or supplies any
substance for use at work
- (A) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the substance is safe and
without risks to health when properly used;
- (B) to carry out or arrange for the carrying out of such testing and examination as
may be necessary for the performance of the duty imposed on him by the preceding
paragraph;
- (C) to take such steps as are necessary to secure that there will be available in
connection with the use of the substance at work adequate information about the results of
any relevant tests which have been carried out on or in connection with the substance and
about any conditions necessary to ensure that it will be safe and without risks to health
when properly used.
(5) It shall be the duty of any person who undertakes the
manufacture of any substance for use at work to carry out or arrange for the carrying out
of any necessary research with a view to the discovery and, so far as is reasonably
practicable, the elimination or minimisation of any risks to health or safety to which the
substance may give rise.
(6) Nothing in the preceding provisions of this section shall be taken to require
a person to repeat any testing, examination or research which has been carried out
otherwise than by him or at his instance, in so far as it is reasonable for him to rely on
the results thereof for the purposes of those provisions.
(7) Any duty imposed on any person by any of the preceding provisions of this
section shall extend only to things done in the course of a trade, business or other
undertaking carried on by him (whether for profit or not) and to matters within his
control.
(8) Where a person designs, manufactures, imports or supplies an article for or to
another on the basis of a written undertaking by that other to take specified steps
sufficient to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the article will be safe
and without risks to health when properly used, the undertaking shall have the effect of
relieving the first-mentioned person from the duty imposed by subsection (1)(A) above to
such extent as is reasonable having regard to the terms of the undertaking.
(9) Where a person ("the ostensible supplier") supplies any article for
use at work or substance for use at work to another ("the customer") under a
hire-purchase agreement, conditional sale agreement or credit-sale agreement, and the
ostensible supplier
- (A) carries on the business of financing the acquisition of goods by others by
means of such agreements; and
- (B) in the course of that business acquired his interest in the article or
substance supplied to the customer as a means of financing its acquisition by the customer
from a third person ("the effective supplier"),
The effective supplier and not the ostensible supplier shall
be treated for the purposes of this section as supplying the article or substance to the
customer, and any duty imposed by the preceding provisions of this section on suppliers
shall accordingly fall on the effective supplier and not on the ostensible supplier.
(10) For the purposes of this section an article or substance is not to be
regarded as properly used where it is used without regard to any relevant information or
advice relating to its use which has been made available by a person by whom it was
designed, manufactured, imported or supplied.
General duties of employees at work.
7. It shall be the duty of every employee while at work
- (A) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other
persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work; and
- (B) as regards any duty or requirement imposed on his employer or any other person
by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions, to co-operate with him so far as is
necessary to enable that duty or requirement to be performed or complied with.
Duty not to interfere with or misuse things provided
pursuant to certain provisions.
8. No person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything
provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare in pursuance of any of the relevant
statutory provisions.
Duty not to charge employees for things done or provided pursuant to certain
specific requirements.
9. No employer shall levy or permit to be levied on any employee of his any charge
in respect of anything done or provided in pursuance of any specific requirement of the
relevant statutory provisions.
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information and safety resource website for subscribed users only.
HASAWA 1974 complete through to section 85 (plus all the
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