Hi All, 

I am responsable for the H&S for a number of countries, predominantly focusing on warehouse operations. I am wondering if there are any resources or training courses out there to help me up skill in understanding the legal / regulatory requirements specific to the countries I am responsible for (Nordics and Europe)

I have looked at Barbour Infomation Services, as well as being expensive I am not sure it reallly has the detail I am after. For example defining the equivalent of PUWER inspections and testing. Any Barbour international service subscribers able to clarify this?

Thanks

Peter’s points are a great starting place, but it’s important to remember how the law is actually applied in some countries outside the UK, including within the EU. The UK applies a law must be complied with approach, whereas other countries don't. This really exposes a weakness in how EU directives work.

An EU directive sets the minimum legal standards that each member state must include in their laws — basically, what the law should say. However, how, or even if, a country enforces its own legislation isn’t something the EU controls. So, while an EU directive might require minimum standards for working at height *for example), a country could still routinely allow practices that don’t meet those standards — and there’s nothing the EU can do about it.

This means some countries operate to standards that don’t fully comply with the legal requirements, even though they’ve technically adopted the directive. It’s this gap that causes challenges for international companies trying to apply their own standards abroad, even when both countries are meant to be following the same legal framework.