Posted By johnsmith357 hello, i'm not a safety professional like the rest of the people on this forum but i've been doing some research and it seems that there is a lot of very knowledgable people on here. I was hoping that someone might be able to point me in the correct direction with a potential problem. To put you in the picture,I've been asked to apply for a site management job in a local govt department that uses one of those public/private partnership things. Basically in effect they have a private company doing a range of administrative duties within one of their offices. Does anyone know where i can get some information on who is responsible for health and safety matters within the private company's area of the business? the reason i ask is that there doesn't seem to be anything on this in company information/website and i am not sure of any precedents. Having had a look round the office there seems to be a few fairly obvious dangers that leapt out at me. If i take the job this could potentially be the difference between being responsible for 100 people or 200 people and will affect my decision on the job. I don't want to potentially be responsible to the senior management for something i cannot control. Thanks in advance Johnny

Posted By MGF Another way to approach the situation is 'who pays them', where does the the renumeration for those employees come from, if a direct link to one of the organisations then they classed as their employees, although they may be managed by another entity/person employed by another organisation. It can be pretty confusing so the question needs to be asked, from there you could decide whether or not the answer was direct enough that they understand the situation or woolly enough to be wary before accepting the position. But generally joint ventures / partnership working can be difficult to determine management structures and H&S responsibility, as H&S is black and white in relation to specific responsibilities and does not really recognise such partnering arrangements, if prosecuting would imagine HSE would fall down the 'direct control / renumeration side of things if it too confusing to determine who is responsible.

Posted By mark linton Again difficult to know for sure from the information available, but from experience of these arrangements, you would be responsible for the workforce, the working practices, fixtures and fittings provided by the private company and the council would be responsible for the maintenance and fabric of the building. Just an opinion

Posted By Crim To ba a little simplistic I would suggest that the employer is responsible for the employees, and of course all employees under sections 7&8 of the HASWA Act. If there is a sub contractor then they are responsible for their own employees etc. Premises would be the responsibility of the building controllers and that could be the employers. The H&S policy for the first employer should delegate responsibilities, that should not be difficult to achieve?