Directors health and safety responsibilities
Health and safety executive responsibilities are very important to understand as soon as you become a director
As a company director, you are responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of your employees and yourself.
Your company health and safety policy will detail your responsibilities.
As a director, your first job should be to review your company’s health and safety policy document and ensure you are happy with it.
If your company does not have one, don’t worry; we have pre-written health and safety policy documents you can buy, or we can write a bespoke one for you.
Legislation that covers the responsibilities of a director
The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974
If a health and safety offence is committed and the cause is the neglect of a director, the person and the organisation can be prosecuted.
Directors can appoint an independent third party to carry out their health and safety duties. The third-party must be fully qualified and competent to carry out the tasks. Delegating does not absolve the responsibility of a director; for example, if the safety advisor required employees to be trained and the director refused and an accident happened, then the director will held to account.
Read the health and safety at work act 1974 To ensure you understand your full health and safety executive responsibilities
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
All work activities are to manage risk. Once the risk or risks have been identified, the organisation must make arrangements to reduce or mitigate the risks.
This work takes the form of RAMS (Risk and Method Statements). The risk assessment identifies risks and examines ways to reduce them.
The method statement describes how the work is to be carried out and ensures that all PPE and other means to reduce the safety risk are included.
Please visit our risk and method statement shop. We have over 150 RAMS, some of which include 18 pages and 9,000 words, that you can buy very reasonably. The documents are in Word format, so you can adjust them to suit your project.
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
Corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide are when an employee is killed at work, and the HSE find the responsibility for the death is due to failure to carry out the work by all H&S laws.
It is very difficult to defend a death at work. The courts tend to side with the employee rather than the employer.
Learn more about the corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide act 2007
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/+/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/docs/manslaughterhomicideact07.pdf
Failing to fulfil director health and safety responsibilities
When a director breaches health and safety legislation and causes harm, the sentences can lead to prison and unlimited fines. Over the past few years, post-COVID, many companies have gone into administration or liquidation due to directors failing to carry out their lawful duties. The HSE is increasingly looking at individuals rather than just the company.
Competent safety advisor
One way to help yourself is to have your own health and safety advisor. You can delegate all health and safety responsibilities to this third-party person. Your safety advisor will educate you on what you need to do to keep your business safe.
If an accident does occur on-site, and the company has all health and safety requirements up to date, the safety advisor will deal with HSE for you.
A safety advisor can save you time and money for a basic monthly fee.
Request a chat and find out more about our safety advisor service
