Given the inevitable focus, in both reported cases and media commentary, on the duty of commercial organisations to ensure the health and safety of their employees it can be easy to forget the breadth of the legal duties which are imposed on a wide range of organisations by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
UK health and safety law does not just apply to commercial organisations and limited companies. The 1974 Act imposes a range of duties on "employers", in other words anyone who employs at least one other person. That includes the self-employed, charities and other voluntary organisations.
Even if you are an entirely voluntary organisation with no employees, certain health and safety duties will still apply to you. For example, if a community group, run entirely by volunteers, is responsible for the local village hall there is a duty on that group of volunteers to ensure that the hall and any equipment provided for use within it, is safe for everyone who makes use of it.
Similarly, if your organisation has volunteers who work alongside your employees (as is the case for many charities and voluntary organisations) your health and safety obligations apply as much to those volunteers as they do to your employees. There is no doubt that best practice from a health and safety perspective is to treat your employees and your volunteers in exactly the same way.
This issue was brought into sharp focus in a recent prosecution brought by the HSE in England following the death of a volunteer. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is a charity which works to preserve and enhance its namesake canal. Like most charities it routinely worked with volunteers who helped to clear rubbish from the canal paths or take care of overgrown plants, but it had also started to involve its volunteers in light construction work involving repairs to canal structures.
A volunteer was tragically killed when a wall collapsed onto him during work to remove temporary stabilisation measures during restoration of a canal wall. During its investigation the HSE identified that the charity did not have a safe system of work in place for the work being undertaken by its volunteers. The charity pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3 of the 1974 Act and was fined £30,000 at Swindon Magistrates' Court in June 2024.
This case is a sobering reminder of the need for any organisation that works with volunteers to ensure that those volunteers are given the same standard of supervision, instruction and training as employees, and that all work being undertaken by volunteers is properly risk-assessed and that a clear safe system of work is in place and properly understood by all involved. From a health and safety perspective, paid and unpaid work are not, and should not be, treated any differently.
In any incident involving loss of life or injury, the financial consequences are of lesser importance. However, even though the level of fines imposed on charities will likely be lower than those imposed on commercial organisations, a fine of the level imposed on the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust could have a devastating impact on a charitable organisation, and its ability to continue to deliver the essential services that so many people rely on.
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