Health and safety laws to stay the same
There will be no changes to the UK's health and safety laws in the short term, following a decision in the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The Court upheld the use of the phrase 'so far as is reasonably practicable' in UK health and safety legislation.
It had been challenged by the European Commission (EC) as not adequately implementing its Framework Directive that does not contain this qualification.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the phrase allowed a commonsense approach to be taken.
An HSE spokesman said:
"We continue to believe that the right way forward is a proportionate and risk-based approach protecting employees and others effectively, whilst allowing commonsense to be applied when deciding on what protective measures to adopt."
