Visitors and the Law

Quite often, security represents the ‘eyes and ears’ of any organisation, thus it seems a natural progression for security managers to be tasked with monitoring Health and Safety conformance while at the same time maintaining a secure environment. Whether or not this dilution of roles is a positive step is another matter, but for many companies it makes economic sense.
Although it’s common practise for an organisation to communicate Health and Safety policies and procedures to employees, it’s the non-employees visiting a site who are frequently overlooked. After all, these ‘visitors’ are as much at risk from hazards as they are a potential security threat. It’s they who the security team will need to look after.
By definition, a visitor is someone “who goes to see some person, place or thing for a short time”. In relation to the workplace, visitors are individuals not belonging to that organisation’s particular site, and will include clients, suppliers, contractors, employees from another site, temporary staff, sales representatives – even the postman!

Legal requirements for visitors
There are three pieces of legislation relating to a visitor’s Health and Safety welfare. They all seek to enforce the common law ‘duty of care’ principle towards every type of visitor – whether invited or not. In terms of what is required by the host organisation, the current legislation itself is somewhat general. However, it’s often those cases brought to court as a result of legislation which focus the security manager’s mind and clarify his or her employer’s legal obligations.
The first important piece of legislation is the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 (last amended in 1984). This places a common duty of care by the organisation ‘occupying’ the premises to all visitors. In a landlord/tenant situation, a claim may be brought against either party depending on the terms of their contract.
In order for any claim to be successful, the following three points must first be established:

• a duty of care was owed to the visitor;
  
• there was a ‘breach’ of that duty;
  
• injury and/or damage resulted.

Potentially, a visitor could pursue a claim through the civil courts. The impressive levels of financial compensation awarded as damages, coupled with a rise in ‘no win, no fee’ claims providers means that your organisation should look very carefully into what its public liability insurance scheme actually covers.
The remaining legislation may be taken more seriously, as it’s a criminal offence not to comply with the clauses listed in due course. Any non-compliance on the part of your company may result in a criminal prosecution, usually by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – the governing body appointed by the Government to investigate accidents and enforce the terms and conditions of Health and Safety legislation.
If successfully convicted, not only would an organisation be facing crippling fines, but more worryingly individuals in that organisation (possibly including the security or facilities manager) may be facing up to prison sentences – if it can be proven that they possessed a ‘controlling mind’ over the events in question (through consent, neglect, act or omission). No doubt the imminent corporate killing charge will see a rise in Health and Safety prosecutions against individuals.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 really serves as the umbrella for all Health and Safety legislation. Section 3 of the Act concentrates on an employer’s duty towards non-employees (including the public) arising from their business activities. In particular, Section 3(i) states that an employer must ensure (so far as is reasonably practicable) “that non-employees are not exposed to risks to their health and safety”. Section 3(3) goes on to state that “employers must provide required information about their operations that may affect the health and safety of visitors”.
Last – but not least – comes the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, last amended in 1999. These regulations are the direct result of European directives, and aim to build upon the clauses set up in the Health and Safety at Work Act. Here, the legal requirements are a touch more specific, providing a general framework on effective safety management.
Regulation 3, for example, requires every organisation employing more than five people to undertake a formal risk assessment (and to record the findings). This involves the identification of any potential hazards within the workplace, and the necessity for taking practical steps to remove or reduce the associated risks.
In addition, Regulation 12 expands upon the Health and Safety at Work Act in requiring the employer to provide appropriate instructions and information for employees of any other companies working on their premises.

Practical steps for communication
The key aspect of all the above legislation is the effective communication of Health and Safety information to any visitors you may have on site. In essence, there are three ways in which this may be achieved: via the host, relevant signage on site and by way of visitor passes.
The host – either the security manager, or a member of the officer team perhaps – may serve as a useful source of Health and Safety information (in particular on those occasions when a visitor is accompanied at all times by their contact). However, this relies heavily on the host knowing and communicating all the necessary policies and procedures. It also doesn’t take into account certain types of visitor – such as delegates, contractors and ‘temps’ – who are far less likely to be supervised.
Relevant signage can be a very effective tool in notifying a visitor of a particular hazard. That said, the legal standpoint is that the use of general warning signs will not absolve your organisation from liability. Those signs which do not conform to the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 are most likely to be considered insufficient. The only comfort for in-house professionals is that it isn’t necessary for an organisation to warn visitors of any obvious dangers, as later clarified under case law.

Visitor management systems
A better solution to the problem of managing visitors on site is to use a signing-in system that produces a visitor pass containing all the necessary information as required by law. Although your own and many other organisations will use a visitor management system, you need to ask yourself how effective it is at communicating to a given visitor the following information:

• appropriate instructions and information (presented in an easily understandable format) regarding risks and the controls in place on site that are needed to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act;
  
• clear, concise information on emergency procedures, such as those actions that must be taken in the event of an emergency evacuation (plus any first aid provisions) – by incorporating a site map onto a visitor’s pass this will provide instant information on the designated assembly points, while it’s also important to include a description on how the actual alarm will sound (such that it may be distinguished from an end of shift bell, for instance);
  
• the name and telephone number of a contact to notify of any problems or defects encountered during a visit (given that it is as much the duty of the visitor to inform your organisation of any potential hazards as it is your own).

Remember that different alarms may signify alternative emergency procedures, with potentially dangerous consequences for a visitor (for example, an intermittent sound could warn people to close windows and remain inside, whereas a continuous alarm is a signal to evacuate the premises).

Setting a clear policy
Visitor pass systems are open to abuse – one member of a group of visitors may be the only person that registers, while regular visitors may not register at all! Not only does this pose a security threat to an organisation, it also makes it extremely difficult to maintain a duty of care when using the visitor register as a roll call to guarantee safe evacuation should an emergency arise.
By way of overcoming this, a firm policy needs to be put in place to ensure that ALL visitors (even the regulars) must report to reception and sign in for the benefit of increased security as well as Health and Safety legislation compliance.
To encourage visitors to take the ‘official’ route, your reception area should be clearly marked and made the only entry point for non-employees. Locating the visitors’ car parking spaces near to the main reception will help.
Like today’s practising security manager, an effective visitor management system will fulfil a dual role – by raising Health and Safety awareness and improving security within the workplace. A visitor system could also mean the difference between knowledge and ignorance.
More importantly, perhaps, it can signify the difference between safety and danger.