The Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. At the time of its passage, the Act was intended to extend the protection of workplace health, safety and welfare under the Factories Act 1961 to other employees in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. Though some of it remains in force, it has largely been superseded by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulations made under it. Breach of the residual provisions is still a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

punishable on summary conviction in the

magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cou ...

by a

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

of up to £400 or, on

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...

in the Crown Court, imprisonment for up to two years and an unlimited fine. In the event of

damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

arising from a breach of the Act, there may be civil liability for

breach of statutory duty A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

. Though no such liability is stipulated by the Act itself, none is excluded and the facts could be such as to give rise to a

cause of action A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a ...

in that

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

. A breach not actionable in itself may be evidential towards a claim for

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...

. In particular, a criminal conviction may be given in evidence.

Background

The Act stemmed from the 1949 Gowers Report which had already led to the Mines and Quarries Act 1954, Agriculture (Safety, Health and Welfare Provisions) Act 1956 and Factories Act 1961. The 1963 Act extended protection to a further 8 million employees.

Scope of Act

Health, safety and welfare of employees (general provisions)

Sections 4 to 16 defined general broad requirements for safe and healthy workplace working conditions:

Cleanliness Cleanliness is both the state of being clean and free from germs, dirt, trash, or waste, and the habit of achieving and maintaining that state. Cleanliness is often achieved through cleaning. Culturally, cleanliness is usually a good quality, as ...
Overcrowding
Temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...
Ventilation Ventilation may refer to: * Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation ** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing *** Ventilator, a m ...
Lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
Sanitary conveniences
Washing facilities
Supply of
drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...
Accommodation for clothing
Sitting facilities
Seating for sedentary work
Eating facilities
Construction and
maintenance Maintenance may refer to: Biological science * Maintenance of an organism * Maintenance respiration Non-technical maintenance * Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English * Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doct ...
of floors, stairways and passageways.

These provisions were

repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

ed and superseded, as far as they applied to "workplaces", by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992Reg.27/ Sch.2 with effect from 1 January 1993 for new workplaces and 1 January 1996 for established workplaces.Reg.1 There is still a potential residual scope of application to "offices, shops and railway premises" that are not "workplaces" as the definition of "workplace" is in some ways limited. Section 17 made requirements for the safeguarding of machinery but was repealed and superseded by the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 between 1 January 1993 and 1 January 1997. Section 18 prohibited persons under 18 from cleaning certain hazardous machinery but was repealed and superseded by the Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations 1997 on 3 March 1997. Sections 20 to 22 gave the Secretary of State the power to make regulations under the Act but these powers were repealed with the coming into force of the 1974 Act. Section 23 restricted manual lifting of weights that might cause injury but these requirements were repealed and superseded by the

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 Manual handling of loads (MHL), manual material handling (MMH) involves the use of the human body to lift, lower, carry or transfer loads. The average person is exposed to manual lifting of loads in the work place, in recreational atmospheres, and ...

on 1 January 1993.Reg.8(1)/ Sch.2, Pt.I

References

Bibliography

* * *Lord Mackay of Clashfern (ed.) (2004) ''Halsbury's Laws of England'', 4th ed. reissue, Vol.20, "Health and Safety at Work" * (

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) * ---- {{English law types United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1963 Health and safety in the United Kingdom Safety codes Occupational safety and health law