Posted By TouchBasehse I work for a large manufacturing company. In our Safety Management Structure we have, safety advisors and co ordinators within the business. Advisors are full time Safety, whilst co ordinators our part time volunteers bolted on to their day job. The question I have been asked In Law, Could the Safety Co ordinator be prosecuted or held responsible, for carrying out this function on behalf of the management in case of an accident. regards, David

Posted By George Wedgwood As in all legal issues, it depends on the authority formall vested in the coordinator by his manager or the company. If the coordinator abuses his duty and responsibility and gives advice or instruction that leads directly to harm, then he may be liable. However, in most companies, such an employee would not have that responsibility and his manager would make the final decision, becoming partly liable in the process. The manager is an acting servant of the company and if he carries out his duties in good faith then the company is as usual, normally liable as a body. Coordinators have a useful role in business but it is important to ensure they understand their boundaries of competence as this will often be that area where they can cross inadvertently if stimulated by job pressure - and that is a company responsibility. The company will also be liable if they place an incompetent person in a role where they are unable to make the correct decision or give the right advice - i.e. is a guard needed or is it OK for the operator to clean the machine without being isolated? An Ok here by a cordinator may reflect badly on his competence but will still leave the company very vulnerable to prosecution for not having a safe system of work and it would be doubtful if the coordinator could be found liable.

Posted By Martyn Hendrie Regarding Peter's refence to The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations it is my belief that they only apply to trades union appointed representatives. Also, rather than giving the safety reps duties they afford them certain rights. If the people referred to in the original posting were not TU appointed reps then the SRSC regs would not be applicable

Posted By David Sinclair All of the previous respondants are correct in what they say. However, to summarise: All employees have a duty under s.7 and 8 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (as amended). All employees also owe a common law duty of care to those around them. Technically therefore a health and safety co-ordintor can be prosecuted and/or sued for damages. However, this is highly unlikely to happen unless the co-ordintor was extremely negligent and in so being he/she had disobay'd his/her employers instructions/procedures. Moreover, an employee can only be prosecuted under s.7 HSWA where the employer has complied with all his duties under s. 2 HSWA. Finally, there are special rules of negligence which apply to volunteers (or rescuers), which states that as long as the volunteer did the operation to the best of his ability (bearing in mind the training, etc. he had been given), the court will not find him negligent. Therefore in practice, it is very unlikely that a volunteer health and safety co-ordinator will be prosecuted or sued for damages. I hope this helps. Regards. David