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practice, e.g.
Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations
Chemicals (Hazard Information & Packaging for Supply) (Amendment)
Regulations
Distinction between Regulations and ACoPs
It is important not to confuse Regulations with Approved Codes of Practice (ACoPs).
ACoPs do not lay down legal requirements; therefore you cannot be prosecuted for
failing to comply with the guidance contained in them. However, contravention of the
advice in a code of practice is admissible in evidence to prove a breach of the HSWA or
its relevant provisions. The introduction to ACoPs will contain the following statement:
Although failure to comply with any provision of the code is not in itself an offence, such
a failure may be used in criminal proceedings as evidence that a person has contravened
a regulation to which the provision relates. In such a case, however, it will be open to
that person to satisfy the court that he has complied with the regulation in some other
way.
A good example of this is illustrated by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health
Regulations and its ACoP. The Regulations require employers to control the exposure of
their employees to hazardous substances; however, they do not contain a detailed
description of what are considered to be appropriate control measures. The ACoP, on
the other hand, provides detailed advice concerning measures which can be used to
control exposure to substances hazardous to health. ACoPs are published with the
relevant Regulations as one document.
The practice of putting the detail of good practice into the ACoP is a sensible one. It is
designed to curtail the amount of legislation and the many changes to legislation that
would be required if such information had to be contained in the legislation itself.
Changing the provision of an Act of Parliament is a lengthy and complicated process
whereas the Commission can comparatively easily amend, withdraw, or replace a code
of practice.
Guidance Notes
There is a further series of documents published by the Health and Safety Executive,
known as Guidance Notes. The information contained in these is purely advisory and
has no legal significance. Often a Guidance Note will accompany a code of practice, e.g.
the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations has an accompanying
code of practice and two Guidance Notes. The Health and Safety Executive publish eight
different sets of Guidance. Many are free and can be obtained from your local HSE office.
