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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;
PART1
(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.
2 - (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
2 - (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.
2 - (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.
2 - (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.
2 - (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.
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.
3 - (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 - (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.
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.
4 - (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 there from 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 there from 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.
4 - (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 there from; 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 - (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 - (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.
5 - (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.
5 - (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.
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.
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