Interested to learn whether my colleagues believe that method statements are a legal document per se, or are an articulated safe system of work that complies with legal requirements. There are a number of arguments for and against, just wondered what the majority think. Many thanks.

Ray

Not sure I understand the question ... do you mean is it legally binding like a contract? or is it a legal requirement?

I think that it is far more diffcult to answer that question than many realise so I advise that a legal specialist provided detail

Your signature is in itself not a legal entity [that I know of] but a legal document does not become legal until it is whole and such documents are not whole until your signature is applied to that docunment so your signature then becomes legal. Phew!

my advice is to treat all higher risk documentation as legal documents as if you end up in court you will be relying on them and there standing

Ray,

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Do you mean is a method statement a requirement in law (as a risk assessment is) or just part of safe system of work?

If so a method statement is nothing more than part of a safe system of work.

A method statement could be used in a court of law as (part of evidence) that standards have been met but it is not a compliance document in itself (as say a certificate of thorough examination would be).

Have I got the right end of the stick???

Thanks for the comments. Basically I have been asked to respond to a report which claims that method statements are a legal document. In my opinion a MS is not a legal document, but the contents within the document comply with legal requirements eg risk assessments, SSoW. If I am being pedantic then I apologise.

Indeed a MS could be used in court to support or otherwise a SSoW was in place. However, any safety related document could also be evidenced, but this does not mean the document is a 'legal document', unlike say Employers Liability Insurance certificate where there is a legal requirement to have and dispaly it.

Hi,
I've always thought that a method statement is something that is part of a safe system of work, its a formal stage by stage written system of work that details all precautions to protect anyone at risk and is agreed between all parties. It is simply a written method of communicating how a task is to be carried out. HSE has also called it a Plan of Work see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/alagann8.pdf
Cheers
Steve

Ray - your last post pretty much beat me to it.

It struck me that there are some documents that we would all pretty much consider to be a 'legal document' e.g. a will, house deeds etc, then there are documents that while we may not necessarily consider to be legal documets, they do nevertheless have some legal status, a cheque for example, and then I suppose there are other documents that in many cases we wouldn't necessarily consider to be legal documents on a 'day to day' basis but which may subsequently have some legal status. I would say that the method dtatement almost definitley falls into one or other of the catergories. Arguably, I suppose, any document that could be produced in court as evidence might reasonably be considered to have some legal status, and therefore be considered as 'legal documents'.

But I think you sort of hit the nail on the head with the notion of the 'instrument'. I recall from my days in the RAF the numberof cases of people being charged or Court Martialed for 'false instrument' which were, to my recollection, in the main peope making fraudulent travel claims.

I thought the various discussions had in the main part answered the question.

Surely the determintion of whether something is a legal document or not, can't be based solely on whether someone has or hasn't been prosecuted? Bearing in mind that our legal system extends further than mere prosecutions for alleged criminal acts!

While on the face of it, I would agree that mountains of paperwork never saved anyone, I for one would argue that an MS is or at least should be much more than just 'paperwork', and would hazard a guess that many MS's and other 'pieces of paperwork' such as SSOW, RA's will have saved many!

Hi All,

Very interesting forum,

So when a main contractor asks for a MS/RA we give them a SSoW --

Why dont we just change the name and every one is smoking from the same pipe

JMC