swarb.co.uk - law index
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Health and Safety - From: 1990 To: 1990
This page lists 1 cases, and was prepared on 27 May 2018.
Austin Rover Group Ltd v Her Majesty's Inspector of Factories [1990] 1 AC 619
1990
HL
Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle
Health and Safety
The relevant factors in the phrase the words "so far as is reasonably practicable" are the foreseeable risk of injury and the cost of the preventive measures. "Sections 2 and 3 impose duties in relation to safety on a single person, whether an individual or a corporation, who is in a position to exercise complete control over the matters to which the duties extend. An employer can control the conditions of work of his employees and the manner in which he conducts his undertaking."
Lord Goff said "for the purpose of considering whether the defendant has discharged the onus which rests upon him to establish that it was not reasonably practicable for him, in the circumstances, to eliminate the relevant risk, there has to be taken into account (inter alia) the likelihood of that risk eventuating. The degree of likelihood is an important element in the equation. It follows that the effect is to bring into play forseeability in the sense of likelihood of the incidence of the relevant risk, and that the likelihood of such risk eventuating has to be weighed against the means, including cost, necessary to eliminate it."
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
1 Cites
1 Citers
