ICT AS Legislation

Health & Safety at Work Act (1974)

Sets out duties that employers have to employees and what duties employees have to themselves and others.
Steps employers must take;
- Carry out assessments of H & S risks
- Make arrangements for any risks found in assessment to be mended.
- Keep a record of assessments & adjustments made as a result.
- Draw up a H & S Policy and drawing the employees attention to it.
- Appointing competent people to carry out H & S adjustments.
- Provide clear emergency procedures (E.g Fire exits).
- Provide clear information & training.
- Co-operate with other employees who share the same workplace.
Steps employees must take;
- Take reasonable care of themselves.
- Co-operate with employer
- Use provided work items correctly.
- Not interfering/misusing anything which is provided.

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Gives creator ownership - only they can change/adapt the deign & give permission for others to use it.
Act applies to many different types of work; computer programs, music, art, drama, sound recording, films, radio and television broadcasts.
However, this act does allow some material to be used for educational purposes. (e.g. placing a copyrighted image in an assignment)
How will it affect organisations?
- They will need to check the copyright status of any existing information they want to use.
- However, they may own the copyright & have financial gain by charging others to use it.
- Ensure they have the correct licenses & make sure no more than the specified number of people are using the copyrighted object (e.g computer program) at any one time.

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Created to overcome problems that have accured due to increased use of IT, e.g. hackers - before 1990 they were hard to prosecute if caught due to no set out laws.
Act makes it illegal to:
- Gain unauthorised access to computer material
- Gain unauthorised access to computer material with the intent to commit further crimes.
- Carry out any unauthorised modification of computer material (e.g. impairs operation, prevents access to programs/data, impairs operation of programs/reliability of data)
Act was mainly introduced for organisational use.

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Information about people used to be on paper - now on computers. Act was updated in 1998 to cover all information including that on paper.
Information Commissioner has a register of organisations who store & process personal data. to be included in register the organisation has to provide;
- name & address of data controller (the person who decides the purpose for information).- description of the data stored- description of the data purpose- Details of anyone who data may be disclosed to- Details of any countries outside the EU that may have the data -Description of the security measures taken to protect the data.
The 8 principles of storing and processing data:
- data collected & processed fairly & lawfully -data to be used only for purpose specified data must be adequate & relevant - data must not be kept longer than neccesary - data must be processed accordingly - data must be kept secure - data must not be transferred outside the EU - data must be kept accurate & up-to-date.
The rights individuals have include:
- The right to access their information - the right to prevent processing for direct marketing - right to prevent processing that may cause distress - righ to have inaccurate data corrected.

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Issued in relation to the use of VDU's and related computer equipment.
Gave rise to the H & S (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations (1992)
These regulations set out what an employer must do to minimise the risk to employees who use computers.
To comply with these regulations the employer must:
- Analyse work stations to assess and reduce risk (includes looking at equipment, furniture & working environment)
- Enusre workstations meet minimum requirements (includes adjustable chairs, suitable lighting, tilt & swivel monitors and sufficent work space.)
- Plan the employee's work to allow for breaks and changes in activity (doesn't specify how long these breaks should be)
- Arrange eye tests on request & provide spectacles if special ones are needed (special ones only).
- Provide H & S training and information.

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Aim: to facilitate electronic communication and electronic data storage.
- 1st way - encryption services - involve the encoding of data so it is unintelligible except to those with the key to decode it.
- 2nd way - making electronic signatures legally binding.
This act is of particular benefit to organisations that sell goods/services using e-commerce. It means the organisation can be confident about the encryption services used. Also means they can obtain electronic signatures from customers on contracts rather than having to send out hard copies of contracts for a signature.

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