Robens and pre-Robens Occupational Health and Safety Legislation

Robens and pre-Robens Occupational Health and Safety Legislation

1. Introduction

This report is an analysis of the Robens and pre-Robens occupational health and safety legislation.

The Robens Committee of Inquiry was set up by the British Government, in 1970, precisely because of concerns that the traditional system, based upon the framework of the nineteenth century British Factory Acts, was too rigid and complex and unable to keep pace with social, economic and technological change. The mass of legislation was therefore reviewed by the Robens Committee, which concluded that in spite of this law, there had been no significant reduction in the numbers of people killed and injured at work.

The objective of this report is to compare and contrast the styles of legislation and provide an analysis of their key similarities and differences. It will also outline the main strengths of the Robens philosophy of occupational health and safety regulation.

The terms of reference used are mainly the Robens report, the Health and Safety at Work Act, the British Factory Act and some pre-Robens legislation in Australia and News Zealand and some articles written over the years on the subject. The observations made are mainly based on the Health and Safety at Work Act. This is mainly because; its measures and its philosophy have come to represent the essence of the universal approach to regulating health and safety. It has also been influential in legislative reforms in many countries, particularly those whose legal systems are based on the British model, such as Australia and New Zealand. The Robens Committee’s recommendations, although far from universally accepted, subsequently provided the basic building blocks for the Health and Safety...

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