HSE consultation on self employed excemption

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Just got this email

"...HSE's latest consultation on proposals to exempt the self-employed from duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act - except for those carrying out prescribed activities. Annex 1 of the document details the activities that are prescribed and you will see on page 21, that:

"Any activity giving rise to a duty under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998."
​

is prescribed, and therefore any self-employed person undertaking these activities (gas work, landlords' duties, alterations to premises that contain gas fittings etc) will still need to comply with the requirements of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

The consultation was launched on Monday 7th July and will run for 8 weeks until the 31st August 2014. Below is a link to the consultative document:

CD273 ?

Consultation responses and any queries should be directed to:

Tel: 0151 951 4712
E-mail: [email protected]
​

Thanks

Jill

Jill Wakefield
Work Environment, Radiation and Gas
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Bootle​

I feel a headache coming on just reading that.

I'm not sure it is at all relevant to us but perhaps one of you might think it is?

Just a quick copy and paste to give you a clue what it is about:

The current position5. ... general duties on everyone “at work” including the self-employed. Section 3(2) states:
“It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety.”
The proposed change
7. ...to be amended in order to exempt self-employed persons from the general duty in respect of themselves and other persons (not being their employees), except those undertaking activities on a prescribed list.

Prescribed list includes gas work, obviously. Also electric and construction.

I am thinking that when we get the self employed cleaning guy in to clean up after us he may be except from H&S - but what would that mean anyway?

 

[Roger Welton]

Just means we have to abide by the same regs on what we can install, but whist doing it we can merrily not worry about work at height, guards on tools and so on, though we obviously do as its ourselves we will injure!

 

[josh]

Tara are you now a soliciter/ legal adviser? Lol.

 

[deandive]

If it means I will no longer have to look over my shoulder when using a ladder without a harness, or get my tools pat tested, I will be one happy teddy bear

 

[Anton]

It's probably just another HSE cog, with a very tall shiny forehead sitting at a desk who has run out of things to do.