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Provisions under a new enabling Act should replace existing statutory
provisions.
Voluntary codes of practice should be introduced.
The scope of the legislation should be extended to include all employees (with
minor exceptions) and the self-employed.
The existing safety and health inspectorates should be amalgamated.
New administrative sanctions should be adopted.
Local authority work should be co-ordinated with that of the new authority.
The interests of the public should be taken into account in the new legislation.
General fire precautions should be dealt with under a Fire Precautions Act.
The Employment Medical Advisory Service should function as part of the new
authority.
It was proposed that the traditional approach based on detailed statutory regulation
should be replaced with a legal framework within which effective self-regulation of
working conditions could be created by employers and employees working together.
To assist in this process, it was suggested that greater use should be made of voluntary
standards and codes of practice produced by the industries themselves to promote
better conditions. It was expected that this would free the statutory inspection services
to increase their advisory role, but would also enable them to concentrate more
effectively on serious problems where more stringent control might be necessary.
This philosophy and reasoning resulted in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974,
we will further discuss the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 later in this unit.
Common Safety Terminology
In occupational health and safety, the words hazard, risk and danger(ous) have well-
defined meanings.
Hazards are associated with degrees of danger and are quantifiable in units ranging
from slightly hazardous through to very hazardous.
Risks, on the other hand, should be thought of in terms of chance-taking, and can be run
either after careful consideration or out of ignorance.
Danger is the essence of a hazard, and a risk is taking a chance with regard to that
hazard.
Risk Management, therefore, lies in ensuring that the risk taken is well thought out, with
regard to all likely consequences, and is controlled.
The usual definitions used in risk management are:
Hazard anything with the potential to cause harm or loss;
