LO1 – Understand how health and safety legislation and regulations affect

a business working environment

P1/M1/D1

Explain the legal For ensuring employee’s well-being in the workplace, UK Govt. has
requirements and enacted many laws acts and legislations. The Health and Safety
regulations for Executive, also called HSE, is responsible for forming these acts and
ensuring the enabling them in practice. Right now, these acts and legislations are
health, safety and being enforced in UK workplaces:
security of those
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
employed in
business It is the foundation of health and safety at workplace related legislations
in UK. It states that all employers have duties and responsibilities
towards their employees to ensure their safety, health and welfare.
Alongside this, the act compels all employers to install relevant safety
measures if there are hazardous instruments being used in work
(Waldegrave, 2012). Also the staffs should be trained to know the use of
all related equipments. Materials, plants and systems maintenance is
made mandatory so that broke down equipments can do no harm. Also,
related provision should be clearly stated and advertised. Thus this act
makes sure that employers complete all requirements to make the
workplace safer.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

This act is also a much important one which is related to risk assessment
and taking procedures for mitigating those risks. The act states that
employers should assess the relevant risks arising from workplace and
take procedures to mitigate those risks. Also, emergency situation
should be estimated through simulations and proper steps should be
decided to do if those arise. It also gives the employees right to let the
employer know the probable risky situations or danger so that
employers may act accordingly.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

Workplace safety is the main concern in this legislation. Employers

have the duty to make the employees safe from dangers arising from the
regular work activities. These aspects are covered in the act from which
employees should be covered:

Figure: Workplace Regulations 1992

Source: (Cellar, 2012)
Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992

Nearly all workplaces today have jobs related to computer screens.

Long exposure to screens can damage sight of employees, so this act
states that employees should be able to take break from looking at their
screens after a set interval. Also, employer should the employees with
eye test every year, and this cost will be from employer’s side. Besides
these, employers should make the seating arrangements much flexible
so that employees don’t suffer from repetitive strain injuries.

Computer Misuse Act 1990

 Important legislations have been enacted to prevent the misuse of
computer in health and safety sector. According to this act, workplace
environment should be made safe from wilful cyber attacks. It defines
the crimes and states how to prevent them and also warns the employer
and employees from misusing the computer to hack or damage
important information in workplace (Elbra, 2013). Besides this, this act
also prevents employer and employee from looking each other’s
computers without consent.

Analyse the effect Every organization has to abide by some laws and regulations and they
of health and become affected by these legislations. BMI The Manor Hospital is
safety legislation such a private health care company which falls under above-mentioned
and regulations on legislations.
a given business
These legislations have profound impact on the working environment of
working
this business. For Health and Safety at Work 1974, the hospital is
environment
bound to ensure the health and safety working at the hospital. They
provide training to nurses and doctors who handle medical hazardous
equipments. Also, these equipments are routinely inspected and updated
so that they don’t break down. Besides this, the hospital authority uses
custom risk assessment form to assess risk and develop procedures as
they are bound to follow Management of Health and Safety at Work
Regulations 1999 (Ridley, 2011). Also, to handle emergency situations
like fire or earthquakes, safety measures have been installed. To ensure
that Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992is
being followed, hospital authority made a list of possible aspects of
danger related to the workplace and made sure that those have been
taken care off. Proper ventilation, lighting, cleanliness have been
endures, Also, structural safety is maintained. All employees are given
break of 5 minutes after every 30 minutes of work to prevent their
eyesight from getting damaged according to the Display Screen
Equipment Regulations 1992. Semi-annually, free eye test are given to
the employees and ergonomic seating arrangements and harmless
displays have been installed. This helps employees from long-term harm
 caused by computer work. Also, Computer Misuse Act 1990has
important impact. Security cameras are installed and authentication
processes are being used in hospital to prevent from computer misuse
and stealing or hacking of sensitive information’ of other employees an
employer. Without the enactment of these acts, workplace would not be
safer and healthier. Employees would be working in risky environment,
sometimes be exposed to long-term physical and mental damage and
also their privacy or integrity may have been breached which ultimately
cause less productivity, decreased reputation and lawsuits.

Evaluate the need The need for health and safety legislation and regulations in
for health and organizations can be assessed after simply looking at the statistics
safety legislation below:
and regulations
for a given
business working
environment

Figure: UK Health and safety statistics

Source: (Janicak, 2011)
BMI The Manor Hospital is one of the major health care providers in
UK. As much as all other health care providers face workplace safety
issues, it also faces various physical, mental and equipment related
risks. From above-mentioned statistics which shows the frequent
workplace injury or deaths, many needs arise for safety legislations to
be followed like:

Avoid lawsuit

Employers are liable for the different accidents that happen to

 employees in workplaces. Thus any accidents happening in the Manor
Hospital to employees gives rise to lawsuits and cases which is bad for
the hospital and its reputation. To avoid that, the hospital should follow
the legislations.

Ensure employees long-term well-being

Employees are the lifeblood of the organization. What the organization

will achieve will be directly affected by the productivity of the
employees (Combe, 2010). Following health and safety legislations
enables The Manor Hospital to best manage employee’s welfare and
ensure productivity.

To ensure privacy of information

Information related acts make sure that sensitive information doesn’t get
stolen. The Manor Hospital needs to follow the act to prevent patient
information, research documents etc from being hacked and stolen.

LO2 – Know the requirements for healthy, safe and productive working
conditions

P2/M2

Business BMI The Manor Hospital

Name

What type This business is private hospital which provides Cosmetic Surgery, Cancer
of business Care, Women's Health and Fertility services and Orthopaedic surgery
is this? treatments.

What sector This business belongs to the healthcare sector of UK which is one of the
is this
business in? growing industries in UK.

Describe the A business runs on its equipments and employees. Its physical environments
requirement and equipments are required to be kept in safe status so that these may not
s for a harm the employees (Barling, 2011).
healthy and
safe
workplace,
as applied to
the physical
environment
and
equipment
used

Analyse the Productivity of an organization can depend greatly on its working conditions.
importance Employees may be expert in their jobs but failure to ensure the right working
of healthy condition may result in less productivity. A business can increase its
and safe productivity greatly if it maintains safe workplace environment in these ways:
working
conditions
in
promoting
productive
working
conditions

Figure: Process of promoting productive working conditions through

ensuring healthy and safe workplace
Source: (Melling and Booth, 2009)
When healthy and safe working conditions are promoted, employees fall sick
less often. Thus the most importance of healthy workplace is that it decreases
absenteeism. When proper measures are taken, less number of accident
happens and organization retains its efficient workforce. As the organizations
take step to “watch over” employees safety, they feel more committed and
employee engagement increases manifold. Employees feel more motivated
and their morale gets high. All these together cause employees to increase
their effort in taking their organizations towards ultimate goal and
productivity gets high as mostly all employees stay healthy and safe and also
committed. Besides this, organization has to pay fewer amounts in sickness
payment, insurance cost, medical payment which saves significant amount of
money (Herrington, 2009). Thus, altogether it can be said that, health and safe
workplace is the most important matter in keeping the employees safe,
committed, efficient and productive and thus increasing efficiency,
productivity, profitability of the organization.
LO3 – Understand the role and responsibilities of key personnel

P3

Explain the Ensuring a healthy and safe workplace is one of the primary concerns of an
health and employee in an organization as it greatly affects the profitability of the
safety corporation and ultimately affects the employer’s interests. The employers
responsibilities has many roles and responsibilities to play to make the workplace safer and
of employers healthier:

Risk Assessment

The very first health and safety responsibility of an employer in an

organization is to find out the risky situations, damage possibilities and
possible mishaps. The employer can do this by using appropriate risk
assessment form. Only after assessment the risk can be addressed and taken
care of (Marvin, 2014).

Train employees and make them aware

When employees know to handle the hazardous equipments properly,

mishaps occur less frequently. For that, employers have the duty of training
the staff to make them aware of the risks and the ways to use the safety
measures installed against those risks.

Provide safety clothing and equipments

Employees working with systems with harmful chemicals or in highly risky

plants are more prone to risks. Employers managing this workforce are bound
to provide the employees with safety masks or uniforms and equipment so
that employees are not exposed to any short or long term harm.

Provide emergency treatments and safe accommodations

Although protective measures are taken at every workplace, accidents can

happen anyway. To cope up with emergency situations, employers should
install first aid facilities and provide safe eating and drinking
accommodations.
 Take insurance and safety policies

Employers are also responsible for taking health insurance for mass
employees considering probable situations. Organization-wide safety policies
should be formed and communicated to all employees by the employers.

Explain the As employers have the responsibilities to make the workplace safer, the
health and employees also some things to do to coordinate with the efforts of the
safety employers. Employees’ job is basically to help the employers fulfill the
responsibilities healthy and safety rules. These are the basic roles employees can play:
of employees

Figure: Employee role in Health and Safety

Source: (Kohn, 2012)
Employees first and foremost responsibility in health and safety is to avail the
opportunities of training the employer provides about the safety in
workplace. Employers can only provide the training; it depends on the
employees to be able to use the training. Also, along with the employers risk
assessment approach, employees are also responsible for identifying possible
breach or risky situations and report that to the employers so that they may
take steps. This awareness of the employees can make sure that no risk goes
unnoticed by the employers. At last, all of the employer’s efforts will go to
vain if employees don’t co-ordinate. So, employees are responsible for co-
operating with employers on the effort to make the workplace healthy and
 safe.

Describe 3 key In every organization, health and safety issues are very common. To
roles in an effectively manage these issues, management hires human resource
organisation responsible for healthy and safety rules. These are the 3 key roles in an
that have organization that have health and safety responsibilities:
health and
Human resource director
safety
responsibilities Managing the human resource obviously incorporates the role of managing
their health and safety. Human resource director oversees the overall well-
being of the human resource, appoints the necessary manpower to ensure the
safety measures, assesses risk himself or appoints risk management division
(O'Reilly, 2008). Also he keeps watch on the budget allocation which is very
crucial in buying safety equipment and maintaining these. Besides these, he
takes care of the health and safety policies of his workforce and makes sure
that those are being enacted.

First aider

First aider is the person who responses at the very peak of an accident and
makes sure that the victim is being treated the best until more help arrives.
Mostly, these people give first aid in emergency situation until ambulances
arrive. In the event of an accident, these people have the most crucial
responsibility to take care of the victims. Their role is to provide fast medical
attention to the victim and their first aid can prove much crucial in matter of
life and death.

Facilities Manager

Most organizations make use of plant, systems with hazardous substances in

their production or business activities. Facilities manager is charged with the
responsibilities of governance and risk management and safety control of
these facilities. He should make sure that proper clothing or equipments are
being provided to the employees while working (Wilkinson, 2010). Also he
should make sure that harmful systems are not being used in the facilities.
 Also, he is responsible for monitoring working conditions of the faculties.

Select an organisation you are familiar with and answer the questions below

Who are the For these questions, a private hospital, BMI The Manor Hospital is being
key people in selected as the organization. The key people in this organization responsible
this for health and safety are Manager of occupational safety, Emergency
organisation Medical Officer and Lab safety officer.
responsible for
Their roles and responsibilities are being described in the table below:
health and
safety?

Describe their
roles and
responsibilities
LO4- Be able to assess and manage risk

P4/M3

Design and create your own risk assessment form for an office work environment

Carry out a risk assessment using the form you have created

This is the risk assessment of Bright Systems Ltd which uses the previously created risk
assessment form for an office environment:
The risk assessment of this business identified the relatable hazards and observed the control
measures in place and also showed what can be done more. It indicates that office
environment of this business is significantly risky as there are high and moderate risks in
temperature and noise status. This can be minimised through setting the temperature limit at
optimum and making the rooms’ soundproof, Air condition and drinking water status is
satisfactory. More monitoring is needed to prevent data breach of management. Also,
electrical equipments are found to be highly risky. Replacement and up gradation is
suggested. Fire extinguishers and fire escapes needs to be installed to eliminate high risk of
fire. The overall condition shows that the office environment is moderately risky. Following
these suggestions, the business can lower the risk rating more moderately risk to low-risk
condition.

References

 Barling, J. (2011). workplace safety. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: American

Psychological Association.
 Cellar, D. (2012). Workplace Safety. 1st ed. Routledge.
  Combe, C. (2010). Employee wellbeing. 1st ed. London: Practising Law Institute.
 Elbra, T. (2013). A practical guide to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. 1st ed. Oxford:
NCC Blackwell.
 Herrington, A. (2009). Fundamentals of employee benefit programs. 1st ed.
Washington, DC: Employee Benefit Research Institute Education and Research Fund.
 Janicak, C. (2011). Occupational safety and health Statistics. 1st ed. Lanham, Md.:
Government Institutes/Scarecrow Press.
 Kohn, J. (2012). Fundamentals of occupational safety and health. 1st ed. Lanham,
Md.: Government Institutes.
 Marvin, J. (2014). Workplace safety and health. 1st ed. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.
 Melling, J. and Booth, A. (2009). Managing the modern workplace. 1st ed. Aldershot:
Ashgate.
 O'Reilly, J. (2008). Employers' responsibility for Heath and safety. 1st ed.
Scarborough, Ont.: Carswell.
 Ridley, J. (2011). Workplace safety. 1st ed. Oxford [England]: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
 Waldegrave, W. (2012). UK Laws and policies. 1st ed.
 Wilkinson, C. (2010). Fundamentals of health at work. 1st ed. London: Taylor &
Francis.

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