Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 02
1 MRS. JILL BARNES, recalled.
2 Cross-Examined by the Defendants, continued.
3
4 MS. STEEL: Could I ask about the Electricity at Work Act 1990?
5 A. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.
6
7 Q. Sorry. They became law on 1st April 1990?
8 A. I believe they came in in 1990, yes.
9
10 Q. Did all aspects of the law come in at the same time?
11 A. I cannot remember.
12
13 Q. You do not know?
14 A. I cannot remember now.
15
16 Q. Have you got pink volume XIII, please? Turn to tab 52, the
17 first page. It is page 76. Have you got that one?
18 A. I have, yes.
19
20 Q. Do you know why it was that, despite the Regulations
21 becoming law on 1st April 990, this memo was not sent until
22 15th November 1990?
23 A. Well, as with most regulations, the enforcement
24 authorities do give like an unofficial period for companies
25 to come in line with it, but also the two main things in
26 that Regulation that apply to us were, first of all, to do
27 with competent persons working on electrical equipment --
28 we already gave training -- and the other was to do with
29 maintenance of equipment. We already had procedures in for
30 maintenance; it was just we felt as we would be coming
31 under those Regulations they both needed to reviewing so
32 that is why we were doing the extra work at the time.
33
34 Q. It was not until, if you look at the following page, March
35 1991 that stores were instructed to set up a service
36 history manual, which is a year after, virtually a year
37 after, the Regulations came in?
38 A. Again, the Regulations are based on risk assessment and
39 they asked -- they employ us to carry out a risk assessment
40 and take appropriate steps to ensure competence and to
41 ensure repair. Nobody is going to expect that the day that
42 they come in you are going to have all of your systems that
43 you identify in place straightaway. There is always a
44 short period, particularly when it involves changes to
45 equipment, changes to systems, and I doubt very much
46 whether any employer, on 1st April 1990, had completed
47 their risk assessment in respect of the Regulations and
48 introduced everything they intended to. What enforcement
49 officers usually look for is a plan of intent to comply
50 with the new regulations.
51
52 Q. I presume you had thought the Regulations were a good idea?
53 A. They certainly better specified them than ever before
54 what was expected of employers in terms of electricity in
55 work.
56
57 Q. They were designed to improve the safety of employees and
58 others?
59 A. Well, I take it that the EC directive, which came out,
60 which was the source of these regulations, was aimed at
