A scare has broken out over the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, with women being advised that the drug may, in certain circumstances, be responsible for an increased risk of secondary tumours. Medical charities have moved to play down the concerns but, according to the guardian website, US research has indicated that those using tamoxifen for a period of five years were more vulnerable to developing more aggressive tumours, as opposed to those which require oestrogen, which tamoxifen targets.
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In a previous post I explained what ‘work equipment’ actually is and what is meant by the term ‘use at work’ but today I will try and help you answer the following:

“Is your work equipment actually suitable? What obligations do your Employer’s have to ensure the suitability of the equipment they provide you with?”
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The European Framework Directive sets out certain regulations that govern Health and Safety in the work place.

The frame work directive applies to all sectors of work both public and private. Its sets out a number of general obligations that employers must follow, these include:
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The law you need to know: Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 – ‘PUWER’

The above Regulations outline that your Employer should ensure that all work equipment is maintained:
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What happens if an owner of a vehicle gives his permission for someone who he knows is not insured to drive his car? Not only would he be civilly liable (which means any other injured party will be able to sue him for any injuries or damages caused), he would also be criminally liable.

To what consent the owner would be liable was considered in the case of Monk V Warbey. In this case the Claimant was injured by a car being driven by an uninsured driver with the owner’s knowledge. In order to claim against the owner of the vehicle, the Claimant must show:
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The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 cover manual handling operations at work.

The below is just an intro. to the Manual Handling Regulations, there is a lot more to the regulations and I will cover the other stuff in future posts.
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The facts:

• 7% of the UK workforce work within the construction industry
• 25% of fatal accident’s result from construction sites; and
• 16% of major accidents

It is clear from the above statistics that working within the construction industry is both a risky business and darn right dangerous. If your brave enough to work on a construction site it’s important to ensure that both you and your Employer do everything to ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible. Being lax on safety on a Construction site is a complete NO-NO and from our experience is like playing with fire!
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Tort means civil wrong, so where in criminal law a wrong is a crime, in civil law it is called a tort.

Negligence is one of the most important areas in tort. In order to establish negligence the following must be assessed:

• Was the defendant (the person you hold responsible for the ‘tort’) careless in his behaviour?
• And did this careless behaviour cause you a loss or injury?

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Most accident claims are fault based – this means that in order for your claim to succeed, you must prove that the defendant is at fault (the Defendant being the person you hold responsible). In order to sue a party for the ‘tort’ of negligence you must prove (among other things) that the Defendant breached the duty of care he owed to you.

So to qualify for the fault ‘test’ you must show that the Defendant’s standard of care fell below that of a reasonable careful person and he is therefore blameworthy.
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If you are injured on property owned or occupied by another person (e.g. at Tesco or at the Pub etc) then your claim is covered by The Occupiers Liability Act 1957 and the 1984.

The occupiers liability Act 1957 sets out duties for the occupier to ensure that an authorised visitor will be safe for the purpose of which he has been invited there for.
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