The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) conducted a

review of health and safety regulation in 1994. It found that

people were confused about the differences between:

Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs); and

and how they relate to each other.

This leaflet aims to explain how each fits in. It is for

employers and self-employed people, but will be of

interest to anyone who wants to know how health and

safety law is meant to work.

The basis of British health and safety law is the Health and

Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The Act sets out the general duties which employers have

towards employees and members of the public, and

employees have to themselves and to each other.

These duties are qualified in the Act by the principle of `so

far as is reasonably practicable' . In other words, an employer

does not have to take measures to avoid or reduce the risk

if they are technically impossible or if the time, trouble or

cost of the measures would be grossly disproportionate to

the risk.

What the law requires here is what good management

and common sense would lead employers to do anyway:

that is, to look at what the risks are and take sensible

measures to tackle them.