Specific Rules for Display Screen Work

The employer must manage health and safety matters relating to work with VDUs and other display screen equipment.

Work with VDUs and the like can cause harm to users' health, such as eyestrain, fatigue, stress, back complaints, repetitive strain injury (RSI), facial dermatitis and the like. There are also concerns about possible risks to pregnant women and people who suffer from or are predisposed to epilepsy.

Work with display screen equipment can also pose risks to the safety of users, such as from electrical hazards, cabling and other trip hazards, and equipment hazards such as moving parts in printers or the like.

The main regulations are the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, often referred to as the Display Screen Regulations.

These set the minimum legal standards for work with display screen equipment and focus mainly on the avoidance of health risks. The aim of the regulations is to improve working conditions at VDU and other display screen workstations by providing ergonomic solutions, to enable certain regular users to obtain eye and eyesight tests, and to ensure that users are informed about hazards, risks and control measures associated with their workstations.

The Need for Good Management

To ensure that legal obligations are met for health and safety risks associated with the workplace it may be necessary to strengthen your systems and procedures for monitoring risks, risk controls and health and safety arrangements. This is because developments in science, technology and management are continually increasing the level of knowledge about hazards and the state of the art for controlling risks.