Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who is (a) responsible for the installation of fencing to keep cattle safely grazing and (b) liable if the fence breaks and a member of the public is injured by cattle.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.

The main piece of health and safety legislation enforced by HSE is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA). Under the HSWA, those creating work-related risk have the primary duty to control it. Therefore, farmers who own or manage cattle as part of their business activities and place those cattle in fields, have a duty to ensure that the cattle are kept inside the designated field or fields by provision of suitable means such as perimeter fencing, walls or hedges.

In addition, where public rights of way run through fields in which cattle may be kept, farmers should consider and implement those control measures that are reasonably practicable for the particular farm or field as set out in HSE guidance sheet Cattle and public access in England and Wales. This may include provision of permanent or temporary fencing as a means to segregate cattle from members of the public using rights of way through the field. Again, the primary duty is on the farmer that owns or manages cattle to control risk to people to the extent required by health and safety legislation.

If other parties also have a role in the ownership or management of the land on which cattle are grazed, they may also have duties under health and safety legislation to co-operate with the farmer so that risks are adequately controlled.

Depending on the reasons behind any failure of perimeter fencing or in-field fencing along public rights of way, initial enquiries to determine any criminal liability would begin with those dutyholders who have responsibility for maintaining the perimeter fencing / in-field fencing.