ABSTRACT
Health and Safety in Britain rose from humble beginnings in the 18th century Victorian era. With the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, its aim was to minimise the working hours of women and children and until the 1970s, continued to evolve in a piecemeal manner, giving minimal protection to employees. Today, we have a plethora of health and safety regulation that has emerged most signifi cantly since the 1970s with the passing of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA) including impressive enforcement agencies who oversee every aspect of occupational health and safety. However during the 1980s when Britain became a member of the European Union (EU), the European Commission set up Action Programmes specifi cally to develop health and safety standards within the EU. This resulted in it becoming far more heavily regulated with the passing of many Directives and Regulations, which have been implemented into UK law. The EU continues to revise and develop health and safety regulation within the EU and Health and Safety in the UK is more tightly regulated than ever before. More recently, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CHCHA), came into force changing the way in which organisations are liable for the death of their employees resulting from health and safety issues. This piece of legislation is demonstrative of a well-overdue change of the law, in which companies can be held liable for causing a person’s death due to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care.
