Changes to health and safety requirements for self-employed workers

Implementation date: 1 October 2015

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (General Duties of Self-Employed Persons) (Prescribed Undertakings) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1583) specify the list of activities where self-employed workers are required to comply with health and safety duties under s.3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, following changes to health and safety laws for self-employed workers. The list includes activities in agriculture, construction, gas and railways, and working with asbestos. In addition, self-employed workers who carry out an undertaking that involves an activity that poses risks to the health and safety of others are required to comply with the health and safety duties imposed by s.3(2) of the Act.

The Deregulation Act 2015 (Health and Safety at Work) (General Duties of Self-Employed Persons) (Consequential Amendments) Order 2015 (SI 2015/1637) makes consequential amendments to various provisions in health and safety legislation to exempt self-employed workers, whose activities are not caught by s.3(2), from the health and safety duties imposed by those provisions.