Report Robens

Carbaryl experiments with guinea pigs were inconclusive. Robens reported slight embryotoxicity with vertebral malformations at 300 mg/kg/day, p.c. days 11 to 20. Weil et al. (1973) found neither embryotoxic nor teratogenic effects by oral feeding (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg/day), or by Intubation (30, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day) p.c., days 10 to 24. 

The Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 (HSW) is based on the recommendations of the Robens Report and sets out in principle the objectives to be achieved for ensuring high standards of health and safety in the workplace. This Act has superseded the earlier Factories Act and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act and is underpinned by regulations made under its delegating powers. 

What is the (1972) Lord Robens Report Explain its major provisions and impacts on management of workplace safety and health. 

Report of the Committee on Safety and Health at Work, 1970-71 (Robens Report), Cmnd 5034, HMSO, London (1972)... 

There have been very few studies which have considered Inspectorate/ employee relationships. But the La Trobe/Melbourne Occupational Health and Safety project did collect valuable data on inspector/health and safety representative interaction. This study observed and assessed the operation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1985, which was enacted by the State of Victoria and modelled on the Robens Report. The authors explain that the Act meant that inspectors now had to adjust to acknowledging the existence and powers of worker representatives (1990 124). Their findings and conclusions accord with those of this research. They found evidence that inspectors were not always asking to see health and safety representatives when they visited workplaces. They also discerned a concern amongst inspectors that they could be embroiled in industrial relations problems that were not strictly related to occupational health and safety. As this research into BR found, the degree of contact between inspectors and health and safety representatives seemed to be dependent upon the discretion of individual inspectors. The La Trobe study also discerned a similar reliance upon managerial prerogative to let employees know that an inspector was on site. 

In 1972, the Robens report recognized that the introduction of heaith and safety management systems was essentiai if the ideai of seif-reguiation of heaith and safety by industry was to be reaiized. It further recognized that a more active invoivement of the workforce in such systems was essentiai if seif-reguiation was to work. Seif-reguiation and the impiicit need for health and safety management systems and employee involvement was incorporated into the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. 

All the recommendations contained in the Robens Report were accepted by the government of the day and by the opposition parties. They have since been incorporated into health and safety legislation, notably the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA). Major changes brought about as a result include ... 

In my Foreword to the sixth edition of Safeh/ at Work I noted the progress we have made in Great Britain since the publication of the Robens Report and the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Our record for ensuring healthy and safe workers and workplaces continues to be one of the best in the world. 

Lord Robens (1972) Safety and Health at Work, Report of the Committee, 1970-72. London HMSO, CMND 5034 (Roben Report). 

---