ABSTRACT
The background to legislation The following comment from a report published by the Health and Safety Executive on safety in the construction industry sets the scene for the problems of accident prevention in the industry:
For a long time the law has played a part in controlling how employers must ‘manage’ safety. Acts of Parliament laying down duties and standards in specific working places date back to 1802. The earliest rules related to the employment of the very young in the mills, where the particular evil was the importing of large numbers of pauper children and engaging them in appalling working conditions. The procedure of making rules to control specific workplaces was established, and it will be seen that this became one of the worst features of the safety legislation.
