An employer cannot pass this duty down the chain: even where safety is entrusted to a competent contractor, liability for a failure remains the employer's own. This chapter begins with the nature of primary liability and how it differs from vicarious liability, before examining the standard of care, the factors weighed in assessing breach, and the evidential force of regulatory compliance or its absence. It then works through the four traditional aspects of the duty — a safe place of work, adequate plant and equipment, a safe system of work and competent colleagues — and the developing rules on psychiatric injury caused by workplace stress. It closes with causation, including the material increase in risk test and mesothelioma claims, and the defences of contributory negligence and volenti.
