The Health and Safety Executive, HSE, has published its strategy for managing health and safety risks over the next 10 years, designed to reflect the changing nature of the world of work. Its goal is to reduce work-related health problems, with a specific focus on mental health and stress. We will consider the relevance of that to Human Resources.
It’s called “Protecting People and Places” and outlines five strategic objectives for the regulator, including expanding its focus beyond protecting workers to support the UK’s move towards net zero and taking on additional responsibilities: the provision of a Construction Safety Regulator and an expanded mandate. on chemical regulation.
IOSH reports on this and quotes Sarah Newton, chair of the HSE board. She says that HSE’s “expectation and evidence suggest that most companies have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage security risks themselves”, underlining the fundamental principle of the HSW Act that ” those who create risks are best placed to manage them.”
Our health and safety team comments on this in their article for Out-Law. Kevin Bridges says:
‘By highlighting that mental health will be a key area of focus, HSE is sending a clear message to employers: make sure you properly assess where you currently stand in terms of the risks and mitigations you have in relation to mental and mental health. physical wellness and put in place appropriate action plans tailored to your particular business.’ He said it is “only a matter of time before we see enforcement action taken by HSE in this area”.
So let’s discuss that with one of the attorneys on the health and safety team. Zoe Betts joined me via video link from Manchester to discuss this. I started by asking Zoe what the regulator wants employers to do:
Zoe Betts: “Well, in the same way, I suppose, that HSE will expect an employer to assess an employee’s safety risks in the traditional sense, traditional risks that might be related to working at heights or working in an office , or working with machinery, I think the HSE is saying that you can’t ignore the fact that the work you ask someone to do, and the environment you put them in, and the work practices you expect them to undertake, could create a risk of work-related stress, anxiety or depression. So assess the risk the same way you would traditional security risks, and then make sure you’ve made the appropriate adjustments. There are a lot of different things an employer could do, but I think it’s more about getting rid of the stigma around mental health, addressing the fact that it’s an issue that affects hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, start the dialogue and talk to people, including HR professionals, about what are the things that would ease the pressure on people in the workplace? What is it about the environment that can be a stressor, and what can be done about people’s environment, their role, their schedule, or the demands placed on them, to make sure we don’t put employees at unreasonable risk? of a mental health illness because that’s where health and safety law could certainly come into play here.”
Joe Glavina: “We know that the HSE takes enforcement action from time to time, but has not yet done so for failings related to mental health safety protection. Looks like that might be changing, Zoe.
Zoe Betts: “Yes, I think that’s correct. I think historically there has been a real lack of action, if I may put it that way, certainly a lack of enforcement action by the HSE. They’ve had various management standards related to stress, they’ve had various campaigns like Working Minds, but they’ve been relatively reluctant to take enforcement action and I can understand that because from an evidentiary perspective it can be quite difficult. to investigate and enforce an issue as multifactorial as mental health. I think we would all accept that work is likely to be a factor in a person’s mental health status, but there are equally disparate and private issues related to a person’s education, relationships, and family situation. So HSE may have found a difficult problem to explore in the past, but I think this new strategy is saying that they’re going to take steps in that direction and I think we need to remember that health and safety law is not based on cause of actual damage. Health and safety law is about creating risk and not managing it, so I think the HSE will look when they visit employers and start asking questions, they’ll look for evidence of how an employer is assessing the mental health risk of employees and how well they are implementing mitigations and taking the right control measures and having the right dialogue with employees. If there is a complete absence of evidence that an employer is aware of this risk and is willing to do what is necessary to manage that risk, in my opinion, it could lead to an enforcement action. It may not be a quick prosecution, it may be a slower specter, there may be a breach notification letter with an intervention fee invoice showing that the HSE has identified a material breach of the law, or the next step of that, in terms of severity, could be an improvement notice, which again identifies the breach of the law but gives the employer, the duty bearer, a certain amount of time to respond. Or it may be a prosecution and what the HSE will say is that they think they can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt that the employer has created a risk that they could and should have done more to manage. So these are going to be very interesting times and I certainly think this is an area that employers really need to focus on, if they haven’t already, and it’s again a joint approach between health and safety and HR. H H. because many of these issues are inextricably linked to employment issues and the type of work our HR professionals do. H H. will be very familiar with it actually fits quite well with the health and safety side.”
That article from our health and safety team is called “HSE Expected to Focus on Mental Health and Safety in Buildings” and is available on the Out-Law website.
LINKS
– Link to Out-Law article ‘HSE expected to focus on mental health and safety in buildings’
