UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

the instrument as a whole of The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
5 November 1992
In force from
1 January 1993
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

Subject to the exception specified in paragraph 2 below, these Regulations give effect as respects Great Britain to the substantive provisions of Council Directive 90/270/EEC on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment (OJ No. L156, 21.6.90, p.14) These Regulations do not purport to give effect to paragraphs 2 and 4 of article 9 of the Directive specified in paragraph 1 above. Regulation 2 requires each employer– to make a suitable and sufficient analysis of those workstations which– (regardless of who has provided them) are used for the purposes of his undertaking by users, or have been provided by him and are used for the purposes of his undertaking by operators; to assess the health and safety risks to which those operators or users are exposed in consequence of that use; to reduce those risks to the lowest extent reasonably practicable; and in the circumstances specified in paragraph (2) of that regulation, to review (and where necessary change) any assessment such as is referred to in sub-paragraph (b) above. Regulation 1(2) defines not only the words “operator”, “user” and “workstation”, but also the phrase “display screen equipment”. Regulation 3 requires each employer to ensure that any workstation which– (regardless of who has provided it) may be used for the purposes of his undertaking by users; or has been provided by him and may be used for the purposes of his undertaking by operators, meets the requirements laid down in the Schedule to these Regulations. In the case of workstations first put into service on or before 31st December 1992, the employer has until 31st December 1996 to ensure compliance with the above-mentioned requirements. Regulation 4 requires each employer to plan the activities of users at work in his undertaking in such a way that their daily work on display screen equipment is periodically interrupted by such breaks or changes of activity as reduce their workload at that equipment. Regulation 5 requires each employer to ensure that users employed by him are provided– with initial eye and eyesight tests on request; at regular intervals thereafter and with the consent of the users concerned, with subsequent eye and eyesight tests; with additional eye and eyesight tests on request, where the users concerned are experiencing visual difficulties which might reasonably be considered to be caused by work on display screen equipment; and with appropriate special corrective appliances, where normal corrective appliances cannot be used and any eye and eyesight tests carried out on the users concerned in accordance with regulation 5 show such provision to be necessary. Regulation 6 requires each employer to ensure that– users employed by him are provided with adequate health and safety training in the use of their workstations; and users at work in his undertaking are provided with adequate health and safety training whenever their workstations are substantially modified. Regulation 7 requires each employer to ensure that operators and users at work in his undertaking are provided with adequate health and safety information, both about their workstations and about such measurements taken by him to comply with regulations 2 to 6 of these Regulations as relate to them and their work. Regulation 8 enables the Secretary of State for Defence to grant certificates of exemption from these Regulations in the interests of national security. Regulation 9 extends the application of these Regulations to and in relation to certain premises and activities outside Great Britain.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source