The health and safety calendar highlights key dates for proposed and existing legislation and policy and closing dates for consultation papers relating to major health and safety issues in the UK and EU.

It will provide a useful tool for health and safety managers tracking new legislation to control risks and improve performance through a health and safety management system such as OHSAS 18001.

Developments for October include:

  • The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force on the 1 October 2006. This new legislation changes the law in non-domestic properties abolishing fire certificates and the replacing them with fire risk assessments. The emphasis is now on fire prevention with the creation of a "responsible person". In most situations this will be the employer plus anyone else such as an owner or occupier. A general duty has been created to go so far as is reasonably practical to ensure the safety of employees and in relation to non-employees to take all fire precautions which are reasonable in the circumstances. Enforcement will be carried out by local fire and rescue services who will inspect premises regularly.

  • The closure on 9 October of the consultation by the Department of Health on proposed regulations relating to smoke-free premises and vehicles. The purpose of this consultation is to share with stakeholders proposals for regulations to be made under Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Health Bill which is currently before parliament. These regulations will set out the detail of how smoke free legislation will be implemented, including plans for exemptions.

The provisional second reading of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill on 10 October. This Bill is based heavily on an earlier draft of The Corporate Manslaughter Bill and responds to the commentary and consultation on the original English proposals and extends to Scotland. The offence created by this legislation would be committed when the way in which any of the organisation’s activities are managed or organised by its senior managers causes a person’s death, and this amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care owed to the deceased.

To view the latest monthly update of the calendar, please click here.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 04/10/2006.