FIGHT CONTINUES TO AVERT ‘SUNSETTING’ OF H AND S REGS

[FOLLOWING WIDESPREAD CRITICISM from the health and safety industry, the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill – dubbed the ‘EU Bonfire’ or ‘Sunset’ Bill – is facing lastditch attempts in the House of Lords to avert some of its more contentious consequences.

The government’s move to set an end-of-year deadline or ‘sunset’, after which retained rules from Brussels yet to be decided on by ministers would be automatically ditched, has been attacked as a way of making critical decisions, including those on health and safety at work, by default or – worse – by accident.

Liberal Democrat Lord Beith warned against ‘the washing down the plughole of things which have not been announced or discussed without any Parliamentary process’.

As it stands the Bill will lead to all UK secondary legislation derived from EU law and retained direct EU legislation to ‘sunset’ on 31 December 2023. In health and safety terms that means a significant number of occupational health and safety regulations, just leaving the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) in force.

Writing on the IOSH website, Mary Lawrence, a partner at law firm Osborne Clarke, said: “Ministers may decide to extend this date to 23 June 2026 – IOSH and others have been pressing for this extension and for an even later date of 2030 to enable due scrutiny, consultation, engagement and transparent process – or to exclude certain legislation from the Bill. However, for this to happen, an active decision will need to be taken by the end of 2023 or else the regulations will disappear.

“If the Bill is adopted in its current form, from what we have gathered so far, most health and safety regulations will fall away on 31 December 2023 because they are EU-derived. This includes the ‘six-pack’ and the framework requirements around health and safety which professionals will be very familiar with.

“Other regulations affected would be those that set specific obligations for particular activities – for example the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 – or hazards, such as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSSH).