1. Health and Safety Executive Health and Safety Executive The Review of the Balance of Competences : Employment and Social Affairs Stuart Bristow International Unit, HSE

2. Programme for Government “We will ensure that there is no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the course of the next Parliament. We will examine the balance of the EU’s existing competences and will, in particular, work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom.”

3. Ministerial Statement 12 July 2012 Foreign Secretary: “The crisis in the Eurozone has intensified the debate in every country on the future of Europe and there is no exception here. Now is the right time to take a critical and constructive look at exactly which competences lie with the EU, which lie with the UK, and whether it works in our national interest.”

4. Competence Everything deriving from EU law that affects what happens in the United Kingdom –Legislation –Non-legislative acts –Other action

5. Review process Call for evidence (= consultation document) –Sets out history, issues, asks questions –Evidence should be objective, factual information Analysis of evidence Report published (online)

6. Structure of the review Competences to be covered by individual reports in groups –Semester 1 (Autumn 2012 to Summer 2013) –Complete. Reports published July –Semester 2 (Spring 2013 to Autumn 2013) –Call for evidence closed. To publish reports this winter –Semester 3 (Autumn 2013 to Spring 2014) –Call for evidence open until mid January –Semester 4 (Spring 2014 to Autumn 2014)

7. Employment and Social Affairs Articles 19 and 145-161 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union –equal treatment –regulation of the employment relationship –social protection (= unemployment, retirement, sickness benefits etc) –health and safety at work –improving coordination between Member States on social and employment issues including employment promotion, social protection and the labour market aspects of the European Semester process

8. Call for Evidence What is the role of the EU in this area? –Achieving a fully functional single market? Avoiding non-tariff barriers to trade? Avoiding social dumping? Making it easier to operate internationally? –Social policy in its own right?

9. Significant variations between Member States in relation to labour market models, culture and approach to social policy and regulation –Our approach less collective than many MS, so, for example, we have a wider range of patterns of work On health and safety specifically: –Prescriptive law –Disproportionate –Not always risk-based, e.g. AOR, EMF

10. Minimum requirements –Really minimum? Non-regression clauses –Tie our hands? Role of social partners (= TUs and employer associations) Role of the Court of Justice –Going beyond original intentions?

11. Questions The argument for social and employment competence –To what extent is EU action in this area necessary for the operation of the single market? –To what extent are social and employment goals a desirable function of the EU in their own right? –What domestic legislation would the UK need in the absence of EU legislation?

12. Questions Impact on the national interest –What evidence is there that EU action in social policy advantages the UK? –What evidence is there that EU action in social policy disadvantages the UK? –Are there any other impacts of EU action in social policy that should be noted? –What evidence is there about the impact of EU action on the UK economy? How far can this be separated from any domestic legislation you would need in the absence of EU action?

13. Questions Future options and challenges –How might the UK benefit from the EU taking more action in social policy? –How might the UK benefit from the EU taking less action in social policy, or from more action being taken at the national rather than EU level? –How could action in social policy be undertaken differently? For example, are there ways of improving how EU legislation is made e.g. through greater adherence to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality or the ways social partners are engaged? –How else could the UK implement its current obligations in this area? –What future challenge/opportunities might the UK face in this area and what impact might these have on the national interest?

14. Thank you for your attention  stuart.bristow@hse.gsi.gov.uk www.hse.gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/review-of-the-balance- of-competences