HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1978 (Hansard, 25 May 1978)

§ Lord MELCHETT
My Lords, I beg to move that the draft Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, laid before the House on 11th May, be approved. The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act did not apply to Northern Ireland. In 1974 a joint consultative group, consisting of representatives of the Northern Ireland Council of the CBI, the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Department of Manpower Services, was asked to consider what arrangements should be made in Northern Ireland in the light of the legislative and administrative changes which had taken place over here. After detailed consideration of the various options the group made a number of recommendations and these have been incorporated in the draft order now before your Lordships' House.
The effect of the order is to give about 200,000 people in Northern Ireland statutory protection for the first time against risks to their health, safety and welfare while at work. In addition the public at large is protected against risks to health or safety arising from work activities. The main provisions of the draft order are identical to those of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 with the exception of the administrative arrangements. After careful consideration the joint consultative group concluded that the arrangements made for Great Britain under the 1974 Act, involving the setting up of two new bodies, the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive, were not entirely appropriate for Northern Ireland. The group therefore recommended the establishment of a Health and Safety Agency for Northern Ireland, with functions broadly similar to those of the Commission, and recommended that Government Departments should keep their legislative, enforcement and main executive functions in relation to health and safety in the workplace.
The draft order does not contain an equivalent to Part III of the 1974 Act, which deals with building regulations. That is dealt with in a separate order 1049 which is before your Lordships' House today. I should like to comment very briefly on some of the main provisions of this important order. Article 3 states the general purpose of Part II of the order; namely, to secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work, to protect other people against risks to health or safety arising out of work activities and to control the keeping and use of explosive or highly flammable or otherwise dangerous substances.
Articles 4 to 10 lay general duties on employers, the self-employed, employees, people in control of premises, and manufacturers, designers, importers and suppliers of articles for use at work. Articles 12, 13 and 15 give statutory authority for the setting up of the Health and Safety Agency for Northern Ireland and specify its functions. These include reviewing various aspects of health and safety at work, making recommendations about regulations, encouraging the carrying out of research and making arrangements for the provision of training and information. The Agency will also have the important executive responsibility of preparing and issuing codes of practice and approving codes prepared by others.
Articles 20 to 28 are all concerned with aspects of enforcement such as the appointment and power of inspectors and the issue of improvement and prohibition notices. Under Part III of the draft order (Articles 48 to 51) the Department of Manpower Services has the duty of setting up an Employment Medical Advisory Service. This will be similar to the Service which has been in existence in England and Wales since 1973 and will provide information and advice on the safeguarding and improvement of the health of employed people and of those looking for, or training for, employment.
Finally, I should like to repeat something that I said earlier: this draft order brings the law in Northern Ireland back into line with the rest of the United Kingdom and provides for a sizeable section of the working population statutory protection for the first time against risks to their health or safety. It incorporates administrative arrangements worked out after consultation with both sides of industry in Northern Ireland and I am confident that it will command wide-ranging support. I beg to move.

Viscount LONG
My Lords, once again I am most grateful to the noble Lord for explaining this very important order and the extremely important draft Health and Safety at Work Agency. I am sure that my noble friends on this side of the House welcome the protection that people will now receive at work within the new Agency. There is, of course, a great deal to read in it and to learn from it, but I am only interested in two items. First, on what date will it come into effect? It is important to get it moving as soon as possible. I see that the Agency is to have a chairman and six others. Has the chairman been elected yet or is that to come? I believe that this is a very good step forward as regards the protection of many people in Northern Ireland and I welcome the order.

§ Lord MELCHETT
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Viscount for his welcome again of what, as he says, is a very important order. The order will be brought into effect as soon as possible. There will, of course, be some administrative and other arrangements to be made once the order has received the approval of both Houses of Parliament, but I do not anticipate too long a delay. As regards the second matter which the noble Viscount asked me about, again the procedures of appointing people to posts in the Agency and so on will await the passage through Parliament of the order. However, once again we hope to make very speedy progress once Parliament has approved these provisions.