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between them, the risk being insignificant in relation to the sacrifice, the person upon
whom the duty is laid discharges the burden of proving that compliance was not
reasonably practicable. This computation falls to be made at a point of time anterior to
the happening of the incident complained of.
Edwards v National Coal Board (1949)
HASWA most, but not all, of the Act is qualified by the term “so far as is reasonably
practicable”.
In any proceedings for an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions
consisting of a failure to comply with a duty or requirement to do something so far as is
practicable or so far as is reasonably practicable, or to use the best practicable means to
do something, it shall be for the accused to prove (as the case may be) that it was not
practicable or not reasonably practicable to do more than was in fact done to satisfy the
duty or requirement, or that there was no better practicable means than was in fact
used to satisfy the duty or requirement.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
The Roles & Functions of External Agencies
In this section we will be discussing the roles and functions of external agencies such as
the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), Health and Safety Executive (HSE), local
authorities (LAs), fire authorities, Environment Agency/Scottish Environmental
Protection Agency and insurance companies
Enforcement of health and safety regulations is dealt with under Section 18 of HASWA.
Enforcement authorities are the Health and Safety Executive itself, local authorities, and
the Environment Agency. Enforcement is mainly the responsibility of the HSE or a local
authority, but the section provides for enforcement responsibilities to be assigned to
other authorities, e.g. control of emission into the atmosphere is the responsibility of the
Department of the Environment, which would be responsible for enforcing the
provisions of the Health and Safety (Emissions into the Atmosphere) Regulations.
The main division of responsibility for enforcement is between the HSE itself and
local authorities. It helps to know which authority is responsible for which type
of industrial or commercial activity. As a general rule, the HSE is the enforcing
authority for industrial premises and the local authority is responsible for
commercial premises within its area. There is an exception (as always) to the
general rule. Neither the HSE nor the local authority can enforce provisions in
respect of its own premises, so they inspect each others premises.
The arrangements for the division of enforcement responsibilities are contained
in the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations.
The following lists indicate the work and activities which are enforced by each
enforcing authority.
