Health & Safety Law & Responsibilities

Under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, how is the employer's general duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees qualified?

• AIt applies only to employees with over a year's service
• BIt applies in full regardless of any cost or difficulty
• CIt applies only once the employer has been warned of a risk
• DIt applies so far as is reasonably practicable✓

Answer: Section 2 requires the employer to act so far as is reasonably practicable, which allows the degree of risk to be weighed against the cost, time and trouble of averting it. The duty is not triggered by a warning, does not depend on length of service, and is not absolute, so an employer cannot be required to spend grossly disproportionate sums on a trivial risk.

A site manager concludes that installing a particular control measure is not reasonably practicable. What must have been weighed to reach that conclusion?

• AThe time to install it against the programme end date
• BThe views of the workforce against the views of the client's team
• CThe level of risk against the cost and effort of the control✓
• DThe cost of the control against the contract value of the works

Answer: Reasonably practicable is a legal balance between the degree of risk on one side and the sacrifice in money, time and trouble on the other; a control is required unless that sacrifice is grossly disproportionate to the risk. Contract value, opinions of the parties and programme pressure are not part of the legal test and cannot justify leaving a risk uncontrolled.

Which section of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a duty on employers towards people who are not their employees, such as members of the public near a site?

• ASection 3✓
• BSection 8
• CSection 2
• DSection 7

Answer: Section 3 requires an employer to conduct the undertaking so that persons not in its employment, including the public, visitors and other contractors' staff, are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. Section 2 covers the employer's own employees, while sections 7 and 8 place duties on individuals rather than on the employer.

A scaffolder removes a guard-rail so a load can be landed more quickly and does not replace it. Which duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 has the scaffolder personally breached?

• ASection 4, to keep premises under one's control safe for those using them
• BSection 3, to conduct the undertaking so non-employees are not exposed
• CSection 8, not to interfere with or misuse anything provided for safety✓
• DSection 2, to provide and maintain safe plant and safe systems of work

Answer: Section 8 prohibits any person from intentionally or recklessly interfering with or misusing anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare, which a guard-rail clearly is. Sections 2, 3 and 4 place duties on employers and those in control of premises, so an individual worker cannot be in breach of them in this way.

From what size of workforce is an employer legally required to have a written statement of its health and safety policy?

• ATwo or more employees
• BTwenty or more employees
• CFive or more employees✓
• DTen or more employees

Answer: Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, read with the Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975, requires a written policy statement, with the organisation and arrangements for carrying it out, once an employer has five or more employees; the same threshold applies to recording risk assessment findings. Smaller employers must still have a policy but need not write it down, and the other figures are not thresholds in the Act.

An HSE inspector finds a breach of health and safety law on site that is not an immediate danger but must be corrected. Which enforcement action requires the fault to be put right by a stated date?

• AAn improvement notice✓
• BA formal caution
• CA prohibition notice
• DA Fee for Intervention invoice

Answer: An improvement notice identifies the contravention and sets a period, of at least 21 days, within which it must be remedied. A prohibition notice stops an activity that involves a risk of serious personal injury rather than setting a deadline, a Fee for Intervention invoice recovers the HSE's costs, and a formal caution is an alternative to prosecution that does not itself set a date for compliance.

An inspector serves a deferred prohibition notice on a site activity. When does the prohibition take effect?

• AOnce the duty holder confirms receipt in writing
• BAs soon as the inspector leaves the site
• CAt the end of the period stated in the notice✓
• DWhen the inspector returns to re-inspect the site

Answer: A prohibition notice is immediate unless the inspector defers it, in which case the activity must stop at the end of the period specified in the notice. Deferral is used where stopping instantly would itself create danger. The notice does not depend on the duty holder acknowledging it, on the inspector leaving, or on a return visit taking place.

Under the HSE's Fee for Intervention scheme, at what point does a duty holder become liable to pay the HSE's costs?

• AWhenever an inspector visits the site, planned or not
• BWhenever the duty holder asks the HSE for written advice
• COnce an inspector finds a material breach of the law✓
• DWhenever an accident is reported to the HSE under RIDDOR

Answer: Fee for Intervention recovers the HSE's costs only where an inspector identifies a material breach, one serious enough to require formal written action such as a notification of contravention letter, an improvement or prohibition notice or a prosecution. A visit that finds no material breach, a RIDDOR report in itself, or a request for guidance does not trigger a fee.

A principal contractor's own operatives share a site with the employees of several subcontractors. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, what must the employers sharing the site do?

• AAgree that the largest employer takes over all the others' duties
• BSubmit a joint risk assessment to the HSE before starting on site
• CCo-operate and co-ordinate their measures and share risk information✓
• DEach appoint the same competent person to act for all of them

Answer: Regulation 11 requires employers who share a workplace to co-operate, co-ordinate the measures they take and inform each other of the risks their work creates for the others' employees. Each employer keeps its own duties, so they cannot be handed to the largest firm; there is no requirement to share a single competent person, and risk assessments are not submitted to the HSE.

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, whom must an employer appoint to help it comply with health and safety law?

• AA trade union safety representative
• BOne or more competent persons✓
• CA chartered safety adviser
• DA registered occupational health nurse

Answer: Regulation 7 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to assist with the measures needed to comply with the law, preferring an employee where one is competent. Safety representatives are appointed by a recognised trade union, not by the employer, and neither a nurse nor a chartered adviser is a legal requirement in itself.

Which combination best describes competence as it is understood in UK health and safety law?

• ALength of service in the industry, plus seniority of role
• BTraining, experience and knowledge, plus other personal qualities✓
• CMembership of a professional body, plus induction attendance
• DA recognised qualification, plus a current CSCS card held

Answer: Competence is a mix of training, experience, knowledge and other qualities such as attitude and the ability to recognise one's own limits. Cards, qualifications and memberships can be evidence of competence but do not by themselves prove it, and years of service or seniority say nothing about whether a person can do a task safely.

A subcontractor's workforce is not represented by a trade union. Which regulations require that employer to consult those employees on health and safety matters?

• AThe Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
• BThe Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996✓
• CThe Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998
• DThe Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977

Answer: Where employees are not covered by union-appointed safety representatives, the 1996 Regulations require the employer to consult them directly or through elected representatives of employee safety. The 1977 Regulations apply only where a recognised trade union appoints representatives, and the insurance and workplace regulations contain no consultation duty.

What must an employer display on site, or make available electronically, to prove it holds compulsory insurance against injury to its employees?

• AIts contractors' all-risks policy summary
• BIts public liability insurance schedule
• CIts professional indemnity cover note
• DIts employers' liability certificate✓

Answer: The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act requires the certificate of insurance to be displayed where employees can read it, or made available electronically. Public liability cover protects against claims by members of the public and other outsiders, contractors' all-risks covers the works and plant, and professional indemnity covers advice and design; none is compulsory under that Act.

A site manager is deciding how much direct supervision a gang needs for a task. What should determine the level of supervision provided?

• AFixed by the client in the pre-construction information
• BProportionate to the risk of the task and the workers' competence✓
• CSet purely by the number of workers making up the gang
• DIdentical for every gang so that no one is treated unfairly

Answer: Supervision is part of the employer's duty to provide a safe system of work and should increase with the risk of the task and decrease as the competence of the people doing it is demonstrated. Applying the same level to everyone ignores both factors, headcount alone says nothing about risk, and pre-construction information describes site hazards rather than dictating supervision levels.