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In Scotland, a new initiative has been taken by Hugh Henry, a member of the Scottish Parliament, to provide better protection to the shop workers and other such workers providing some service to the public. Henry is hopeful that the draft of a new bill named The Workers (Aggravated Offences) Bill will be ready by May 2010.

The main provision of the bill will be to recognise abuse and assault on workers as aggravated crime and the assaulters to be penalised heavily. There is already an Emergency Workers Act of 2005 which imposes tough penalties on the public for assault on frontline workers who provide emergency services. The present bill is aiming at having the same penalties in case of abuse of shop workers too.

Henry said that assault on shopworkers is quite common and although some regulations are there, tougher penalties are needed to protect them. The shopworkers deal with the public daily and since there is face-to face interaction, the risk of abusive behaviour and assault is greater. The law should thus be there to act as a deterrent.

Various unions have already extended their support to this bill. The general secretary of USDAW adds that one in ten workers is assaulted by the public and the present law is not providing enough protection. USDAW has already started a campaign to have such a law in England and Wales as well.

Protecting the health and safety of employees is an essential part of risk management. The health and safety consultants from Workplace Law can assist managers and supervisors in all they need to know to help handle health and safety in their teams, and to help their organisation find the best ways to lead and promote health and safety, and therefore meet its legal obligations.

A report by the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council (RRAC), an independent advisory group formed by the Prime Minister, suggests that small businesses often lack clarity on health and safety issues.

According to the report, this can be attributed to three main causes. One is that such organisations are not confident in understanding and managing the risks they face. Another cause is that small organisations receive a number of diverse messages from different organisations such as legal and commercial partners, insurers, media and even the government, which leads to confusion. Also, there are those who exaggerate the small businesses’ perception of risk. Such ‘risk-mongers’ overstate the risk that small organisations face and get more business by advising them on the same.

Apart from looking into the causes, the report also proposes certain measures to improve the situation. One of the recommendations is that the Law Society, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and other bodies representing the legal profession should consider actions to prevent the abuse of regulation in this area by the no-win, no-fee lawyers. If this is not viable, the report suggests the Ministry of Justice to enact a law in this respect.

It also proposes that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) to assess if advice provided by the insurers to small businesses is adding to the uncertainty about health and safety measures.

Sarah Veale, a member of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council said the government, insurers, media, lawyers and consultants, all provide varied messages about health and safety to the small businesses, which creates confusion and uncertainty. She said this results in these organizations either risking their employees and the public or wasting money on protection against exaggerated risks.

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