There are two branches of the law, the civil law and the criminal law. The former, broadly speaking, is concerned with wrongs committed against individuals (known as "torts") and the latter with wrongs committed against society at large (known as "crimes").
A given act may constitute a breach both of civil law and criminal law and may result in appearances in two different courts; generally criminal proceedings will occur first.
The passing of the Health and Safety at work Act has made little difference to actions at civil law. All employees of this, or any other place of employment, always have had a duty at common law to take reasonable care in carrying out their duty to ensure that any person who is foreseeably likely to be affected by their actions or omissions is not injured thereby. If they fail to do so they may be sued in an action for negligence and damages may be awarded against them in a civil court such as a County Court.
The University, as a corporate body, is responsible for the actions of its employees performed, arising out of, and in the course of, their employment. Consequently, the University and the employee are likely to be jointly sued in the case of a failure of duty on the part of the employee. Normally the employee would be indemnified by the University.
However it is possible that the individual employees might be held personally liable in circumstances in which the University had no liability, as for instance if the act were performed outside the course of their employment, or if the employee were doing something which had been specifically forbidden. The law in these cases is complex and no simple ruling can be given.
Damages awarded may be heavy, depending upon the severity of the injuries inflicted, and could well be tens of thousands of pounds. It is possible for employees to insure against such personal civil liability and, in some cases, membership of a trade union carries with it certain entitlements to indemnity.
The passing of the Act, in broad terms, has brought the criminal law, in the field of occupational health and safety, into conformity with the previous existing civil law. In short, many torts are now also crimes.
Though, it would be expected that, in most cases, it would be the University, as the corporate body, which would be prosecuted there are certain cases in which individuals may also be prosecuted. For example Section 37 of the Act provides that
"(1) Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, the preceding subsection shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate".
It should be noted that the majority of offences set out in Section 33 of the Act are such as to place the onus of carrying out the requirements of the Act upon senior persons holding positions of authority in the University rather than upon the generality of employees.
There are, in addition, a number of technical offences set out in Section 33. These include obstructing or attempting to deceive an Inspector, or failing to comply with notices issues by an Inspector or recklessly interfering with or misusing things provided in pursuance of the Act.
Skylarking or horseplay at work which injures, or threatens to injure, another person may be the subject for individual prosecution.
Fines on summary conviction may be up to £2000 whilst on conviction on indictment the penalty may be imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or an unlimited fine, or both. The fine has to be borne by the convicted individual, and the University cannot indemnify employees against fines, nor is it possible to obtain insurance cover in respect of fines. The University, may, in some circumstances, meet the costs of defence.
It is impossible to define precisely the degree of responsibility which devolves upon an employee, or the extent to which responsibility is shared, for instance, between a Head of Department in whom the overall responsibility for safety within his laboratories or workshop resides, and the members of departmental academic staff carrying out their normal duties. The only safe guideline is that all employees on all occasions must act in accordance with the particular expertise which they purport to have and in accordance with the dictates of reason. The essence of negligence is that is it an act or the omission to perform an act involving behaviour inconsistent with that of a reasonable person in the same situation acting completely within the limits of their knowledge and training and knowledge of the facts (e.g. as to the nature of the risks of injury in the particular circumstances) which such a person ought reasonably to possess.
The liability of students at civil law is that they, like other citizens, are required to take reasonable care in the way they conduct themselves. If they cause injury as a result of not taking reasonable care they may be sued by an injured party and damages may be awarded against them. Skylarking or horseplay which causes an injury, or threatens to injure another person would be a likely candidate for such a prosecution
Normally, the University would not have liability for the acts of students whilst they are on the campus but the precise responsibility of the University in this field is not easy to determine and would depend on the circumstances of the particular case.
Students may be liable at criminal law, in common with employees, for certain breaches of the Act. For example, misuse of fire extinguishers or first aid materials constitutes an offence under the Act both for students and for staff.
In addition to the general duty to take reasonable care, whilst at work, for the health and safety both of the employee himself or herself and of other persons, the Act requires all employees to cooperate with the employer in order that the provisions of the Act be fulfilled.