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#1 Posted : 19 March 2009 09:55:00(UTC)
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Posted By Steven M Hi All If a company is asked to open health and safety documents up to the public what is the legal position? Thanks in anticipation of any help Steven
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#2 Posted : 19 March 2009 10:09:00(UTC)
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Posted By Phil Rose Steven Unless you are a 'public' body and 'fall under' FOI, the answer is pretty much 'no'. If you do fall under FOI, then anyone of any age can pretty much ask for any information. Information can be withheld or 'censored' to protect personal information. The HSE does encourage annual reporting of H&S for private and public bodies, but I don't think that this is mandatory. Phil
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#3 Posted : 19 March 2009 10:19:00(UTC)
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Posted By Phil Rose Steven sorry, I should amend or add to what I have said. It depends on what documents are being asked for. If risk assessments exist that are relevant to public safety then of course these should be made available to the people that are or may be affected by the risks identified. Phil
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#4 Posted : 19 March 2009 13:26:00(UTC)
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Posted By Warren Fothergill As Phil has said, depends on you overall position within the public eye. I would suggest that your health and safety management system should be transparant and that any request should be dealt with in a manner which would be expected. Do we need to read in anything else etc? Have you displayed your H&S policy on line or something and there are other things not immediately obvious to us as readers/professionals? A little more meat to the bone, but the Freedom of Information Act only applies to public bodies, so in that sense your not legally bound.
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#5 Posted : 19 March 2009 23:50:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ron Hunter Not so much "Information can be withheld or 'censored' to protect personal information", but more the fact that is must be impersonalised, or else you'll fall foul of the Data Protection Act.
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