H&S Law - Does it apply?

[mattgriffin]

Hello all, this is my first visit to the forum and my first post.

I'm a member of a professional association that is managed entirely by its members, all of whom do so voluntarily.

The association is pan-European with national groups in 20+ countries, including the UK.

Firstly, does health and safety law apply in these circumstances? Although we don't have an office as such, our regional groups meet throughout the UK at various venues. The AGM and National Training Day often attract in excess of 60 members. I've always assumed that it's the responsibility of the hosting venue to ensure health and safety, risk assessing etc. but am wondering if it would be considered good practice for us to undertake our own risk assessments and have our own health and safety management system.

The other consideration is that the association is registered in France. With this in mind, some of our activities (e.g. web page publishing etc.) have to conform with French by-law. How does this affect our health and safety requirements, if at all?

Many thanks in advance.

Matt

[jonsi]

HSE Website says "Health and safety legislation applies to all businesses, including third sector employers such as voluntary organisations, charities, social enterprises and not for profit businesses. All these employers have the same health and safety duties as any private sector employer in the same circumstances."

Whether your organisations falls into these specific categories or not I would personally err on the side of caution and say that you should comply with the basic requirements of H&S legislation. As Organisers of events you would be considered to be the 'responsible party' and you shouldn't just rely on the DoC that the venue hosts have.

[mattgriffin]

Hi Jonsi,

I'm inclined to agree - good to know I'm on the right track!

Apologies for being naive but what's a DoC?

[jonsi]

Duty of Care (sorry ...shouldn't assume)

[Jack Kane]

Hey Matt,

Welcome to the forums

Glad to have you with us.

[Ashanti]

Hi Matt

I work in the voluntary sector and H&S legislation applies to our volunteers as well as our employees. For H&S and insurance both should be given equal consideration. However it is H&S at work we are talking about and if you have no employees and are all volunteers I would think that insurance and your liability for the people you are working with if that applies would be a greater issue. Even simpler if you are not the controller of any premises as long as you ensure that the venues you use have all the necessary risk assessments, including fire, and sufficient valid public liability. Without knowing what activities you are involved in it is difficult to comment. As for the French aspect, you have to conform with the legislation of the country you are operating in.

[Alexis]

Hi Matt. Just a welcome from me.