Posted By Laurie
I surely cannot be the only one having difficulty with the "Miscellaneous Amendments" Regs, which came into force last Tuesday, specifically the DSE Regs.

During the consultation period I confirmed with HSE that the amended Regs applied to all, repeat all, workstations which may be used by a user/operator. In my subsequent response to the Condoc I asked for an exemption for workstations used for training, much as the Working Space Regs do not apply to classrooms, lecture theatres and the like.

It is now apparent hat such exemption was not forthcoming.

My problem is that as an FE provider I have upwards of 1,000 "workstations", 95% of which are used for training, from CAD in our Engineering and Construction Sectors, through Call Centres in our Business Management, right down to "Computers for the Terrified" for one hour on a Saturday morning. Any and all of these may be, and are, "used" by lecturers for demos, corrections and general student assistance. In addition, as a multi (six) site environment even non-teaching staff such as me will perhaps check our e-mails in one of the libraries, or maybe look something up which does not readily come to mind.

It will cost us thousands of pounds to bring these up to full DSE Regs compliance, and worse, will cause a marked drop in income because we will not be able to take as many students since a full workstation will take up much more space than a teaching workstation.

Now this must apply to every training provider in the country, from Primary 1 to HE Post Grad, but I have not heard a peep out of anybody.

As I said I have confirmed the situation with HSE during consultation, and again on Friday of last week, so is there some small print I have missed, or is everybody else taking no notice?

Appreciate some views

Laurie

Posted By John Dodson
Laurie, Jack would seem to be correct. I raised this with the HSE last week (I was put on to the person overseeing the preparation of new DSE guidance by the person who oversaw consultation on the Misc Ammd Regs).

The draft guidance says:

21. The exclusion in Regulation 1(4)© is for DSE mainly provided for public operation; such as cashpoint machines, and microfiche readers and computer terminals in public libraries. 'Public operation' means operation by anyone who is not an employee or a self-employed person, hence the Regulations do not apply to workstations provided for school pupils or students. (It is nevertheless good practice for students and pupils to be trained to set up and use DSE and workstations in a way that minimises the risks.). The exclusion in 1(4)© does not extend to DSE available for operation by the public but mainly intended for users or operators.

But there is another para, which says:

50. The original Regulation 3 [was amended in 2002] to take account of a judgement in the European Court of Justice (Joined cases C-74 and 129/95); the amended Regulation is shown above. The judgement ruled that articles 4 and 5 of the Display Screen Equipment Directive (90/270/EEC) impose obligations in respect of all DSE workstations, not just those used by 'workers' as defined in the Directive. Regulation 3 [was therefore altered] to remove references to use by users or operators (which are the defined terms in the Regulations equivalent to 'workers' in the Directive).



The HSE confirmed to me that Para 21 means the regs do not apply to pupil workstations and therefore they do not have to comply with the minimum requirements part as described in para 50?

Posted By Laurie
Thanks for your responses.

It obviously depends on who, within HSE, you talk to.

I was left in no doubt, both when I enquired during the consultation phase, and again last week, the regulations applied.

The original question was whether the regs applied to workstations, not to students, or to members of the public.

I have been told, and John Donaldson would appear to confirm, since the Schedule is, ipso facto, the standard, that any workstation which may be used by a user/operator must comply with the regulations.

My problem remains

Laurie