Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

1.11.2 An overview of the Act
Health and Safety Commission (HSC)
The Health and Safety at Work Act established the HSC 
and gave it the responsibility to draft new Regulations and 
to enforce them either through its executive arm, known 
as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), or through 
the Local Authority Environmental Health Offi cers (EHO). 
The HSC has equal representation from employers, trade 
unions and special interest groups.
There is a proposal, currently out to consultation, 
to merge the HSC with the HSE into a single body with 
the HSC functions being performed by a non-executive 
board acting within the HSE.
Regulations
The Health and Safety at Work Act is an 
Enabling Act
which allows the Secretary of State to make further laws 
(known as regulations) without the need to pass another 
Act of Parliament. Regulations are law, approved by 
Parliament. These are usually made under the Health and 
Safety at Work Act, following proposals from the HSC. 
This applies to regulations based on EC Directives as well 
as ‘home-grown’ ones. It is a criminal offence to breach 
a regulation and any breaches may result in enforcement 
action as explained later in this chapter (1.11.4).
The Health and Safety at Work Act, and general 
duties in the Management Regulations, aim to help 
employers to set goals, but leave them free to decide how 
to control hazards and risks which they identify. Guidance 
and Approved Codes of Practice give advice, but employ-
ers are free to take other routes to achieving their health 
and safety goals, so long as they do what is reasonably 
practicable. But some hazards are so great, or the proper 
control measures so expensive, that employers cannot 
be given discretion in deciding what to do about them. 
Regulations identify these hazards and risks and set out 
specifi c action that must be taken. Often these require-
ments are absolute – employers have no choice but to 
follow them and there is no qualifying phrase of ‘reason-
ably practicable’ included.
Some regulations apply across all organizations – 
the Manual Handling Regulations would be an example. 
These apply wherever things are moved by hand or 
bodily force. Equally, the Display Screen Equipment 
Regulations apply wherever visual display units are used 
at work. Other regulations apply to hazards unique to 
specifi c industries, such as mining or construction.
Wherever possible, the HSC will set out the regula-
tions as goals, and describe what must be achieved, but 
not how it must be done.
Sometimes it is necessary to be 
prescriptive
, and to 
spell out what needs to be done in detail, since some 
standards are absolute. For example, all mines should 
have two exits; contacts with live electrical conductors 
should be avoided. Sometimes European law requires 
prescription.
Some activities or substances are so dangerous 
that they have to be licensed, for example, explosives 
and asbestos removal. Large, complex installations or 
operations require ‘safety cases’, which are large-scale 
risk assessments subject to scrutiny by the regulator. 
An example would be the recently privatized railway 
companies. They are required to produce safety cases 
for their operations.