A Matter of Principle

The UK Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 has transformed the culture and practice of health and safety since its introduction, dramatically reducing the number of fatalities and serious injuries in all kinds of workplace, including theatres.

Through the 19th century in the UK there was a growing belief that regulation was required to address the dangers of the industrialised workplace. Government inspectors were appointed in key industries, including factories (1833), mining (1842), and railways (1894), with various industry-specific regulations being introduced over time, but there was no overarching legislation. By the 1960s the shortcomings of this ad-hoc approach were apparent: deaths and injuries at work rose from 450,000 in 1961 to 513,000 in 1969.

The radical and far-reaching Robens Report of 1972 established a principle that has shaped workplace health and safety ever since: ‘those that create risk are best placed to manage it’. The Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) came into effect in 1974. Previous laws that specified very detailed requirements were replaced with general duties to reduce risks ‘so far as reasonably practicable’. Rather than trying to dictate the specific risk controls needed, the act stipulated that employers have a duty towards both employees and other persons to ensure their safety. Employees in turn also have responsibilities.

Key concepts were introduced. Employers have to appoint one or more ‘competent persons’ to manage health and safety, where competence is defined as a combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge that enable someone to perform a task safely. While training and qualifications might be appropriate, the act recognised that these things alone do not guarantee competence. Risk assessment became a vital part of the process of managing health and safety – again, allowing and requiring those close to the activity to respond to the specific circumstances when deciding how to ensure safe working.

Responsibility for regulation was to be tripartite, with workers’ representatives such as unions having a formal role, together with the state and employers. This distributed model of responsibility again was based on principle: ensuring safety is everyone’s job, and everyone has a role in developing safe working practices.

The HASAWA created the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the national regulator for workplace health and safety. It is ‘dedicated to protecting people and places, and helping everyone lead safer and healthier lives’. Its role ‘goes beyond worker protection to include public assurance … to ensure people feel safe where they live, where they work and, in their environment’. The HSE undertakes inspections, enforcement and investigations, as well as providing guidance. It has the powers to carry out criminal prosecutions of companies and individuals, and to require changes to working practices and to the physical working environment. Employers are required to report fatalities and serious injuries to the HSE. The emphasis of the HSE, as with the HASAWA, is on the role of employers and employees in preventing accidents and ill-health, rather than detailed regulation.

Nevertheless, since 1974 a wide range of regulations have come into effect under the act, covering all aspects of health and safety. Those relevant to theatres include the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at Work Regulations 1992, the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH). These regulations are supplemented by codes of practice, which may be created by the HSE, or they may be developed by specific industry sectors and adopted by the HSE, so ensuring they are closely tailored to the way particular industries work.

The HASAWA has had a far-reaching impact on the theatre industry. The Association of British Theatre Technicians (Q30488) has taken on a role providing guidance, disseminating best practice, and organising industry-specific training. Its Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment is a primary reference point for technical theatre production, developed from the combined expertise of the association’s members. Many theatre companies now have dedicated health and safety officers, who take on the challenging role of balancing the sometimes unique creative demands of productions with the need to ensure the safety of all involved. Unions too have recognised they have an important function, representing their members and helping ensure employers meet their responsibilities. The result has been the embedding of health and safety in the daily lives of theatres and theatre workers. Risk assessments and method statements are an established part of the planning process, and safety is routinely built into contractual arrangements between individuals and companies.

Sometimes health and safety is used as an excuse to say ‘no’. It is often the butt of jokes: the cry of ‘it’s health and safety gone mad!’ is regularly heard. The benefits though of the HASAWA’s principled approach are undeniable. In the UK, fatal injuries at work dropped by 85% from 651 in 1974 to less than 150 in 2014. And the total injured at work fell by 77% from 336,701 to 77,310 over the same period. As a result of the Health and Safety at Work Act, Britain is now one of the safest places to work in Europe and the world. Nevertheless, there is further work to do. Occupational and mental health are still significant, and growing, issues. Work-related stress is common in the pressurised environment of theatre production, and in the post-pandemic environment of the early 2020s, the UK ‘Reset Better’ and US ‘No More Ten Out of Twelves’ campaigns are pointing the way to a theatre workplace that emphasises a holistic approach to wellbeing, not just physical safety.