Law

There are two main types of law affecting health and safety in England.

Civil Law

This is concerned with the rights and duties of individuals towards each other and aims to establish liability.

Legal cases over the years have established that an employer owes a duty of care not to harm his employees.

If an employee suffers an accident or becomes ill and he believes it is caused by his employment and he wants to claim damages then he must prove that his employer was “negligent.”

In order to prove this negligence in a court of law the employee would need to prove:

• the employer owed him a duty of care and
• that duty was breached and
• that damage or injury occurred as a result of that breach.

If negligence was proved then the employee would be awarded damages (financial compensation).

Employers may insure against claims for negligence.

Contributory negligence

In some cases it may be that the person contributed towards the injury or damage by their own negligence.  This is known as “contributory negligence” and could result in a significant cut in the employee’s compensation depending on how much they contributed to the incident/damage.

Vicarious liability

This concept goes back to the days of the master/servant relationship in which the master was responsible for the “torts” or wrongdoing of his servants.

In health and safety terms this means that the employer is responsible for the actions of his employees “whilst they are working under the terms of their employment.”

Employees of the County Council are therefore covered by the Council’s insurance unless they are working outside the terms of their employment.

Occupier's Liability Act

Under this legislation, occupiers of premises owe a common law duty of care to all lawful visitors.

The occupier may also have a duty of care to trespassers when:

• He knows there is a risk because of the state of the premises.
• He knows trespassers will be on the premises.
• The risk is one the occupier could reasonably be expected to provide protection against.