The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations known as the Management Regulations were first published in 1992 but were later revoked and replaced by the same titled regulations of 1999 (SI 1999/3242).
They implement EC Directive 89/391/EEC (known as the Framework Directive)
which was passed to encourage improvements in the health and safety of workers at work. Although the general provisions of the Directive were already covered by virtue of the 1974 Act the details of the European legislation needed to be enacted by means of regulations. Both the early 1992 version and the substituted 1999 version of the regulations have provided the backcloth for other regulations to be enacted. Five other daughter EC Directives were introduced following the Framework Directive and these have been implemented in further UK regulations. Together with the 1999 Management Regulations they are what have been called the Six Pack Regulations. The further UK Statutory Instruments are:
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 2002.
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992.
These regulations are fundamental to modern principles of health and safety management and deal with assessment of risk and arrangements for competence in the measures needed to protect individuals and prevent accidents.
While CDM is not part of the Six Pack, the Management Regulations will always apply in those circumstances where CDM does not apply. Schedule 1 of the Management Regulations further requires not only that risks should be avoided and combated at source, but also that those which are unavoidable should be evaluated. This is a new requirement and should be read in conjunction with CDM Regulation 13 on the duties of designers.
The principles of prevention set out in Schedule 1 of the Management
Regulations are as follows:
(a) avoiding risks;
(b) evaluating risks which cannot be avoided;
(c) combating risks at source;
(d) adapting the work to the individual, especially as regards the design of workplaces, the choice of work equipment and the choice of working and production methods, with a view, in particular, to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate and to reducing their effect on health;
(e) adapting to technical progress;
(f) replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less dangerous;
(g) developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology,
organization of work, working conditions, social relationships and the influence of factors relating to the working environment;
(h) giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures;
(i) giving appropriate instructions to employees.