Posted By Dave Daniel Since these are not "employees" and because this is not a place of "work" (No-one is paid to work there) the Health and Safety at Work Act and all its regulations do not apply. Effectively the situation is the same as a DIY builder working on his own home. The organisation's liability in civil law to its volunteers are however defined by the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 which spells out a civil duty of reasonable care, and the organisation would be well advised to insure against any eventuality. Adherance with construction safety law on a voluntary basis would seem to be a good measure for discharging any civil duty although these are not the same, and of course all the planning and building regs still apply. In summary - The HSE can't prosecute you for what you do, but you can be sued by an injured volunteer. I would also point out that unless the organisation is a company limited by guarantee, its members would personally have full and absolute liability for any loss suffered.

Posted By Paul Duell You need to consider the nature of "the organisation". If the organisation has just one employee (and plenty of charities do have employees these days), then it's an employer, HASAWA applies and the volunteers are covered under section 3. Even if there wasn't a strict need for compliance, if I was a trustee of the charity (assuming it is a charity, the OP doesn't specify), I'd consider HASAWA etc to be the best practice model to follow. Incidentally if it's a charity, it's the trustees (basically, the committee) who are liable, not the whole membership.

Posted By Bob Youel "Recently a private householder was building a small hut on their own land for their own use and because of an incident re a person delivering to their property they [the private householder] was prosecuted via the 1996 construction regulations" The point of the comment above is that law has evolved to account for most situations and you can be caught out - so manage properly as if they were full blown employees NB: The local planning people etc may also need to be involved

Posted By peter gotch John Some years ago, the Princes Trust was prosecuted following an accident in which volunteers were fatally injured. Duty of employer towards persons not employed. Regards, Peter