Legal responsibilities of employers
The Health and Safety at work Act 1974 as amended by the Consumer Protection Act sets out your responsibilities.
You must:
- provide a written health and safety policy (if they employ five or more people);
- assess risks to employees, customers, partners and any other people who could be affected by their activities;
- arrange for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures;
- ensure they have access to competent health and safety advice;
- consult employees about their risks at work and current preventive and protective measures.
Failure to comply with these requirements can have serious consequences - for both organisations and individuals.
Sanctions include fines, imprisonment and disqualification.
If a health and safety offence is committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the organisation, then that person (as well as the organisation) can be prosecuted under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Therefore you might also be potentially liable for other related offences, such as the common law offence of gross negligence manslaughter.
This offence is punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 has completed the legal dispositions.
Measures to be taken
- reassess your plans
- revise your statement
- keep informed
- take all the precautionary measures to ensure your business is legally protected.
Your business needs to survive and grow despite the pandemic. Therefore it is necessary to enhance your team responsibility and its ability to face the pandemic and its follows-up. Preparatory exercises and team building can prove be the most effective solution to increase the efficiency of your continuity plan and your written statement.