August EWJ 24 - Flipbook - Page 8
Break Glass in case of Emergency!
Regulatory Assurance, a Step Up
From Compliance
In this joint article, Senior Consultants and Expert Witnesses Tom Leach and Richard Hoyle
discuss the difference between compliance and regulatory assurance and the responsibilities of
owner and duty holders to ensure the suitability of equipment and safety of their employees.
We don’t like the way in which the term ‘compliance’
is often used; it carries many negative connotations
and is often misunderstood, and the term is incorrectly quoted. Whilst compliance is critical in maintaining a safe work environment in line with UK
legislation, from experience it can often become a tick
box exercise where policy and procedures are put in
a folder until that “Emergency – break glass” moment
occurs.
Assurance, on the other hand, is:
the continuous process of evaluating all
management processes, procedures, and cultural
practices that lead to compliance and demonstrate
competency and currency in knowledge and
development, rather than simply meeting the goal of
attaining a certificate passing an audit.
As an example, a Regulation 9(3) Thorough Examination of a crane under LOLER only brings you
compliance with one part of the regulation, not the
regulation in its entirety, this is commonly misunderstood by owners and duty holders.
Compliance is a legal requirement, much like a speed
limit. Be honest, we have all exceeded the speed limit
at some point in our driving career, even by 1 mph.
We do it sometimes without thinking, other times deliberately, and hope not to get caught. The consequences should we be caught in breach of that
compliance with the law is a fine, points, or much
worse – a custodial sentence if, as a result of that
excessive speed, someone is killed or severely injured.
Layman’s example
Much like your car passing an MOT, this is the minimum legal criteria required to consider your car road
worthy. It goes further - Insurance companies can null
and void your cover if it is found that your vehicle is
not MOT’d.
How is Compliance different to Assurance?
In simple terms, being compliant means that you
meet the minimum criteria or standard of a particular set of regulations or accreditation at the point of
assessment. By itself, it is the most basic demonstration of a duty of care, but there are significant flaws
with this. Adequate, may not always be enough.
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
Once a MOT certificate is attained, does this mean you
do not have to conduct any maintenance or remedial
work on your car for the next 12 months to ensure it
remains “suitable”? Does this mean that the advisories
are simply that, “nice to know” that require no further action until your friendly reminder from your
local garage informing you that your MOT is due?
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AUGUST 2024
