It found that people were confused about the differences between:

  Guidance, Approved Codes of Practice and Regulations

And how they relate to each other.

Guidance

Guidance can be specific to the health and safety problems of an industry or of a particular process used in a number of industries.

                        The main purposes of guidance are:  

■ to interpret helping people to understand what the law says including for example how requirements based on EC Directives fit with those under the Health and Safety at Work Act;

■ to help people comply with the law;

to give technical advice

                        Approved Codes of Practice

Approved Codes of Practice offer practical examples of good practice. They give advice on how to comply with the law by, for example, providing a guide to what is ‘reasonably practicable’. For example, if regulations use words like ‘suitable and sufficient’, an Approved Code of Practice can illustrate what this requires in particular circumstance. Approved Codes of Practice have a special legal status. If employers are prosecuted for a breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that they have not followed the relevant provisions of the Approved Code of Practice, a court can find them at fault unless they can show that they have complied with the law in some other way

                        Regulation

 The Health and Safety at Work Act, and general duties in the Management Regulations, are goal-setting and leave employers freedom to decide how to control risks which they identify. Guidance and Approved Codes of Practice give advice. But some risks are so great, or the proper control measures so costly, that it would not be appropriate to leave employers discretion in deciding what to do about them. Regulations identify these risks and set out specific action that must be taken. Often these requirements are absolute to do something without qualification by whether it is reasonably practicable.