Farmers and agricultural businesses in the West Country must share responsibility for the health and safety of contractors and tradesmen they employ, warns rural insurance firm Cornish Mutual.
Dozens of employers across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset could be breaking the law unwittingly, because they do not realise they have a legal obligation towards contractors or sub-contractors brought in to work on their premises.
Both employers and contractors have duties under The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 - responsibilities defined by criminal law which cannot be passed on from one party to another by a contract. If they do, they could be committing a criminal offence.
"Problems often occur because of common misconceptions about who’s responsible for safety when a tradesman is employed to do a job, which is sometimes compounded by doubts around the tradesman’s legal status" said Philip Wilson from Cornish Mutual.
"However, the law is clear - in any relationship between a business and contractor, both parties have duties under health and safety law. Similarly, if the contractor uses sub-contractors to carry out work, responsibilities will be shared by all parties."
He adds, "The extent of the responsibilities for each party depends on the individual circumstances of the project. However, its important tradesmen are clear on the extent of their duties and to have relevant insurance in place as appropriate."
During 2010/11, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted 49 cases involving 85 offences in the South West - 68 of which led to a conviction.
Fines totaled more than £1 million during that period with the average fine costing employers nearly £15,000.
Fines and convictions were for cases involving workers being killed or injured as a result of falling through the roofs of farm buildings, erecting dangerous scaffold structures or falling into, from and being crushed by machinery.
Kelvin Farmaner of Trethowans LLP, said "unfortunately we do see all too many legal cases involving deaths and injuries in these circumstances."
"Farming can be a very risky business but there is a lot that can be done to minimise these risks. Around 400,000 people work in agriculture, which includes farming, forestry, arboriculture, fish farming and amenity use of the countryside - this is less than 1.5 per cent of the working population, but it gives rise to between 15 and 20 per cent of all deaths involving workers in the UK every year."
Rob Pearce, Principal Inspector in Cornwall and Devon for the Health and Safety Executive, said both the client and the contractor have a need to co-operative to make sure health and safety is properly managed.
The Management of Heath & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers who share a workplace, including on a temporary basis, to co-operate with each other and co-ordinate their work to ensure everyone can comply with the law.
As well as common law duties, there are a number of other statutory duties to comply with health and safety. These range from preventing falls (Work at Height Regulations 2005) to using equipment (The Provision and Use Equipment Regulations 1998) with many others to be considered.
However, Kelvin Farmaner from Trethowans says the status of a tradesman is not always as straightforward as it seems, "the courts will look not simply at the name given to a tradesman, but also matters such as whether he used his own tools; who controlled his work; whose business is he engaged in and where the financial risk lies, i.e. how far he had an opportunity of profiting from sound financial management in the performance of his task."
