HSE Consultation on Removing Legendary Acts

Posted on July 17, 2013

Until 12 July the HSE are being consulted on the effect and impacts of removing 12 pieces of H&S legislation, including the legendary Factories Act 1961.

What is a legislation consultation I hear you ask . . . put simply, it means that the government think they’ve had a good idea about removing these Acts but want to double check with the experts at the HSE.  Although the HSE have no say in what actually happens to the Acts, the government are likely to follow their advice.

The Factories Act is legendary as it was introduced to consolidate various pieces of legislation and address a general lack of health and safety awareness among the factories, which were much more prevalent than they are today.  Since then, the Act has slowly been superseded by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the plethora of European legislation brought in under the 1974 Act.

But don’t fear, this won’t change the concept of H&S and make everyone’s lives harder; essentially nothing will change other than in a court room, where the newer pieces of legislation rather than the old ones will be referred to!

There are still a few matters that are only covered by the old Acts; but as the decision to eliminate them is still in its consultation period, not only could the plans be cancelled altogether but anything which was solely covered by an old Act will be identified and covered by the new Acts before the old ones are formally repealed.

To conclude, although this change of legislation is very important in legal terms, it will not actually affect anyone who works under the Acts e.g. the construction industry.  The consultation period is still on-going and anyone who has an opinion can contact the HSE with their views.