New
legislation aimed at clarifying and simplifying elements of health and safety
law comes into force this week.
The
new laws cover areas such as first aid, display screens, personal protective
equipment, manual handling, work equipment, lifting operations and quarries.
Bill
Callaghan, chairman of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), said:
"There are some important issues dealt with in these amendments. They
cover a number of significant changes that will affect a wide range of
important health and safety measures.
"These
amendments will help greatly in clarifying and simplifying the requirements of
the law. I hope these changes will make the regulations covered by these
amendments more accessible to employees, who have important rights and
obligations under these pieces of legislation."
The
proposed changes have been made to clarify a number of issues recently raised
by the European Commission (EC) on specific aspects of the UK implementation of
the EC’s Framework Directive, and also to address some minor drafting problems
that have since been identified in some sets of regulations.
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The
Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 are available at www.hmso.gov.uk
