1.1
After researching the Health and Safety at Work Act I can see that it gives clear guidelines and practices that should be followed within the workplace. Each individual workplace will hold their own policies on Health and Safety which should follow and implement the guidelines set out in the Act.
The Act was introduced in 1974 and has been continuously reviewed and updated to reflect changes in work practices, the introduction of new industries and the changes in the way the legislation is monitored and enforced. The Act was originally devised to provide 'encouragement' for employers and employees to provide safe work environments. It provided 'regulation' and 'clarity' to employers and employees on what the minimum standards needed to be and how this could be achieved. There was an element of 'enforcement' included that clearly showed a set of sanctions that would be put in place for any setting/workplace that failed to meet the provisions of the Act. The ultimate sanction would be prosecution through the criminal courts for any failings, this could result in fines and up to 2 years imprisonment. The less serious breeches would generally result in improvement orders being issued these gave employers set time scaled to rectify problems and make relevant modifications that would insure their workplace became compliant.
The Act included the introduction of 2 regulatory bodies (which have now become 1) The Health and Safety Executive and The Health and Safety Commission. Their roles were to communicate and oversee the implementation of the regulations in the workplace and to police and monitor them. Their role included providing advice to employers and employees on how to create and maintain safe working systems.
An important aspect of the recent Health and Safety at Work Act is that it reflects all workplace issues and the guidance and advice provided can be tailored to specific sectors.
A general point of the Act is that hazards and / or issues