The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Both employers and employees are responsible for their own actions in the workplace. All reasonable steps should be taken when carrying out your work duties and all staff should have adequate health and safety training, and measures should be taken to ensure that policies and procedures are in place and adhered to. For example, it is the employers’ responsibility to provide adequate protective equipment and the employee’s responsibility to use it appropriately.
The Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984 - Provides information on the legal requirements for the reporting of contagious or infectious diseases, for example, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, HIV and Legionella.
Food Safety Act 1990
The requirements of this act apply to any area where food is prepared, stored or eaten. Control is required to ensure that the risks of any infection, as a result of bad handling of food, are minimised. Local and central government employ staff to inspect premises without any advance notice (Environmental Health Officers).
Food hygiene in many health care environments there may be infection control responsibilities under the Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food Safety Act (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995. Under this legislation, care workers who handle food must:
• Keep themselves and their workplace clean
• Wear suitable clean, washable or disposable, protective clothing
• Protect food from any possible contamination
• Abide by regulations setting out safe temperature controls for storage, preparation and display of food
• Inform their employer of any illness which may affect their safe handling of food N.B. These regulations also require that employees who handle food as part of their normal duties should also undertake specific food hygiene training. Reporting Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995
The employer or manager in control of work premises has a responsibility under RIDDOR to report any work related accidents or disease which result in serious injury or an employee being “off sick” due to injury for more than three working days.
The Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1998
Describe the reporting systems and the types of disease which must be reported.
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Requires all staff to be provided with adequate and
