Posted By Phil Rose
Jenny

from what I can see from the information provided, the club is not an employer, and the members therefore not employees. In the absence of such a relationship, much of the Health and Safety at Work Act will not apply.

However, the club will owe a duty of care to the club members and they would have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of club members and members of the public who may be affected by what the club and their members do or not do.

On the liability side of things. The fact that there is an accident doesn't automatically render the club liable. Liability has to be either accepted (by the club) or if not, proven. Liability is essentially and ultimately a matter for the Courts to establish, unless it is accepted.

Hope this makes a bit of sense

Phil

Posted By Phil Rose
Some training might well be a reasonable thing to do. I don’t think that there is any strict duty to keep records, but in the event of a claim, any records will (hopefully) be of some help.

On the latter, I think the difference is that there are statutory duties that might apply to an employee that don’t necessarily apply to a volunteer. However, to complicate matters further, if the volunteer was working for an employer then the situation would be different again, as they would be covered under section 3 of the Health and safety at Work Act and would need to be considered under a risk assessment carried out under the ‘management’ Regs.

Posted By David Wright
I am sure in the past it has been determined that even if they are a volunteer for the purposes of Health and Safety Law the volunteer will be deemed as an employee and therefore will have to give adequate training to be able to carry out their tasks.