LETS TALK ABOUT THE B WORD…

With only weeks to go until we leave the EU, it’s important to understand just how Brexit will affect health & safety.

What’s going to happen? Which H&S regulations will be affected? How will it all affect your H&S team’s processes and procedures? What do you and your team need to do now in order to be compliant?

What’s going to happen?

If you’re expecting things to be dramatically different, you’re likely to be a little disappointed.

Published as a draft in July 2018, The Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, extended to a mere eight pages. Within those pages, only four regulations were actually amended.

Which H&S regulations will be affected by Brexit?

The amendments are all designed to ensure current legislation can still be applied post-Brexit. They mainly look at definitions and where possible, replace EU directives with references to other relevant UK legislation. Where that’s not possible, they provide a clear definition within the amended regulation.

The key regulations affected are:

• Amendment of the Offshore Installations (Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and Emergency Response) Regulations 1995
• Amendment of the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996
• Amendment of the Control of Artificial Optical Radiation at Work Regulations 2010
• Amendment of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017.

The Explanatory Note that accompanies the Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 also references some additional regulations. For instance, it also references The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health, which likely caused some confusion regarding the exact number of changes required. All changes are purely those required to ensure regulations are still applicable within the legal framework, when it sits outside of the European Union. The amendments will not change the requirements and expectations placed on business owners and managers.

What do you and your team need to do before leaving the EU?

Employers can be certain that the procedures and processes they have in place on 31 March will remain relevant when leaving the EU. We do recommend businesses ensure they have reviewed all their H&S procedures before March. This will give them one less thing to worry about before we leave. Why not give our Consultancy team a call? We can assist with health and safety documentation and make certain they comply to the latest legislation.