9. Health and Safety
Community organisations and their management committees, especially where they manage a community building, should be aware that they owe a duty to avoid carelessly or recklessly causing personal injury to people or damage to property.This common law duty of care is owed to employees and to all people who use the organisation’s building; it even applies, albeit to a lesser degree, to people who come into the building without permission, e.g. trespassers. In carrying out this duty, community organisations and their management committees must exercise reasonable care in relation to their dealings with third parties and in relation to the upkeep of the community building. This means that if a community organisation fails to act reasonably in circumstances where a duty of care is owed to another, it will have breached that duty. If the other person suffers injury or damage as a result, then he or she has a right to sue the community organisation (which,
if it is unincorporated, means its members/trustees) and recover compensation.
It is because of this duty of care that bodies like community organisations take out insurance covering their liability to third parties (public liability insurance) and damage to others caused by their employees and volunteers (employer’s liability insurance).
Health and safety issues operate within a framework of law governed essentially by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulations made under it. The law applies to organisations in the community and voluntary sectors in the same way as it applies to commercial organisations.
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