What Are Manual Handling Regulations

              

What Are The Manual Handling Regulations?

Manual handling regulations are critically designed to ensure the safety and well-being of all individuals in the workplace, whether they are directly engaged in manual handling tasks or are indirectly affected by them. Although the specifics of manual handling scenarios may vary significantly across different job roles and organisations, the foundational regulations remain consistent and are firmly embedded in U.K. law.

The manual handling regulations are formally recognised as The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR). They mandate that employers implement comprehensive training programs for employees and conduct thorough risk assessments for tasks involving manual handling that pose a risk of physical injury. This includes assessing the weight, frequency, and nature of manual handling tasks, as well as considering employees' capabilities and the environmental conditions in which they work.

The manual handling regulations prioritise avoiding manual handling where possible and, when it's unavoidable, require employers to assess, control, and minimise risks.

Key aspects of the manual handling regulations include:

• Avoidance: Employers are obliged to seek avenues to eliminate manual handling operations where it is reasonably practicable to do so. This could involve redesigning workflows or utilising automated systems to handle loads.
• Risk Assessment: In situations where manual handling cannot be avoided, employers must conduct a thorough and comprehensive risk assessment. This assessment should consider variables such as load weight, task characteristics (e.g., lifting, pushing, pulling), employees' physical capabilities, and specific environmental conditions (e.g., space limitations, surface conditions).
• Control Measures: Following the risk assessment, employers must implement effective control measures to mitigate injury risk. This may include providing ergonomic tools and equipment, adjusting workflows to enhance safety, and instituting job rotation practices to reduce exposure to repetitive tasks. Additionally, integrating physical modifications to the workplace environment may also be necessary.
• Information and Training: Employers have a duty to ensure that all employees receive comprehensive training and clear information regarding safe manual handling techniques and the manual handling regulations. Formal training should be followed by on-site, job-specific practical demonstrations, guidance on assessing risks, and instruction on the correct use of equipment designed for specific manual handling tasks.
• Safe Work Practices: Employees are expected to adhere to established safe manual handling practices and to use any provided equipment properly. This includes following all training received and utilising ergonomic principles to minimise the risk of injury.
• Report Risks: Employees should be vigilant in identifying potential manual handling risks and promptly report any concerns or incidents to their employer. This includes hazards that may arise from the load they handle or the environment in which they work.
• Cooperation: Employees must actively cooperate with their employer and colleagues regarding health and safety initiatives. This includes participating in safety training, adhering to established safety protocols, and contributing to workplace safety discussions.
• Hierarchy of Controls: The Manual Handling Operations Regulations (MHOR) underscore a structured hierarchy of control measures, beginning with eliminating manual handling tasks wherever feasible. If elimination isn't possible, the subsequent steps involve a thorough risk assessment and the implementation of control measures. The final layer in the hierarchy focuses on providing employees with adequate training and information to ensure they are equipped to handle manual tasks safely.
• No Weight Limit: It’s important to note that the manual handling regulations do not delineate a specific weight limit for manual handling activities. Instead, it places the onus on employers to evaluate and manage the risks associated with both the load's weight and the task's intrinsic nature. This tailored approach enables more nuanced and careful risk management, reflective of individual workplace conditions.
• Reasonably Practicable: The regulations employ the term "so far as is reasonably practicable," signifying that employers must undertake all reasonably necessary measures to prevent or mitigate risks. This consideration includes balancing the risk against the time, trouble, cost, and physical practicality of implementing such measures, ensuring that health and safety remain a paramount focus within the workplace.

Manual Handling Regulations and the Risks

The Regulations define manual handling as;

“ …activities involving the transporting or supporting loads, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads. A load may be inanimate, for example, a box or a trolley, or animate, for example, a person or an animal. The risks from manual handling can be found across all kinds of workplaces – on farms and building sites, in factories, offices, warehouses, hospitals, banks, laboratories and while making deliveries.” [Paragraph 3]

Manual handling can occur across various types of work and spans a wide range of fields. Many injuries resulting from manual handling are part of ‘musculoskeletal disorders’, whereby injuries to a person's limbs or back are incurred. These injuries can occur slowly or suddenly, either due to years of manual lifting or a single unfortunate incident.

Most training and assessments will focus on preventing these injuries by following procedures and techniques designed to limit the load on workers. 

We outline these steps further and in more detail in our blog on AARR and CoG in manual handling. 

The Labour Force Survey estimates that 40% of all ill-health reported at work is a result of musculoskeletal disorders, of which manual handling is a major contributing factor. In simpler terms, according to the Labour Force Survey, an estimated 36.8 million days at work were lost in 2021/22 due to work-related ill health and injuries that occurred at work.

It is suggested that the main cause of musculoskeletal harm when manually handling objects is too much strain on parts of the body due to the weight of the object being carried. It could also be due to mishandling your workforce. Such instances would include having an employee with preexisting conditions related to musculoskeletal injuries carry out long or arduous tasks or if the person is otherwise physically unfit to work. We outline this further in another blog on common manual handling risks.

Section 15 of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations advises you to consult with your workforce to ensure that they report any injuries, major or minor, that they believe may result from or could limit their ability to handle objects manually. Where trade unions are recognised, this will often be issued through a union health and safety representative.

You are required to provide training to your staff, which you can complete with us here at HSEDocs. This training is in line with the current regulations and will give staff knowledge of correct manual handling techniques for the workplace. 

What Are The Employers' Duties Under The Manual Handling Regulations?

As an employer, you must clearly understand the following areas to assess the risks involved in manual handling effectively. This outline will provide you with the understanding necessary to carry out assessments that ensure safety for you, your team, and members of the public when manually handling objects at work. We will review. 

1. What Is Manual Handling?
2. What Are The Risks Associated With Manual Handling?
3. Your Duty To Provide Training.
4. Your Assessment And Review.

If you are an employer with a team that engages with manual handling, you are legally bound to the rules in The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. These regulations apply to you if you are a manager or a safety representative for anyone who has to handle objects where it is ‘reasonably practicable’.

‘Reasonably Practicable’ is a general understanding of limitations towards your duties as a manager to enact sensible safety standards. You will assess the cost, time and trouble of sensible safety procedures against the risks involved in the operation. This section of the regulations, specifically paragraph 10, is intended to maintain a common-sense approach to manual handling and your liability towards coworkers and the general public. 

With that in mind, we should ask what is defined as ‘Manual Handling’ in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations.

When reviewing your workplace and any manual handling tasks that will take place, you must carry out sufficient assessments to ensure the safety of your staff. These assessments take many forms, but are best remembered as AARR, which is an initialism designed to help you in the following areas;

• Avoid
• Assess
• Reduce
• Review

This key aspect of your assessment is outlined in full on our dedicated blog on What Do AARR and CoG Stand For In Manual Handling?

As an employer, you have a legal duty to provide these assessments. Failing to do so could make you liable for any injury that may occur under your instruction. Our Manual Handling Training is an online course that will grant you a recognised certificate in manual handling risk assessments, designed to lower the risk of manual handling.

What Are Your Duties As An Employee?

As an employee, you should alert your manager or the Health and Safety Executive if you are experiencing labour which is too arduous for you to carry out under normal circumstances. This included, but is not limited to instances where;

• You believe you cannot perform your duties due to short-term or long-term illness. This includes any mental illnesses you think are relevant to your work.
• You are under too much duress from the work being carried out.
• The environment is unsuitable for your work area, such as working outside in rainy conditions or on slippery surfaces caused by weather, including ice or snow.
• You believe that the object in question should be carried by two or more people, or instances where you couldn’t reasonably be expected to complete the handling yourself. 

The manual handling regulations state that as an employee, you must report any significant duress you have encountered whilst handling or any concerns you may have had before carrying out any work that has been issued to you.

It is also your responsibility to provide feedback on any equipment you use to carry out your work, ensuring it is used within its capacity to perform its intended task. This includes, but is not limited to;

• Harnesses
• Trollies
• Roll cages
• Hand pallets
• Powered lift trucks
• Hooks, hoists or suction pads 

You should provide feedback about these devices' capacity to perform their task. This also includes the capacity of others involved in the task and their suitability for the task at hand.

You should be able to bring any issues to your manager or employer, as part of their assessment process is to ask for and openly receive this information from you. If you believe that this dialogue cannot be had suitably, or you cannot do so for what you believe to be reasonable circumstances, you have a legal right to refuse to proceed with the work. This refusal to work is enshrined in U.K. law as Section 44 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.