🚨 Most ISO legal registers are wrong.
Most construction companies think their legal register is about modern HSE law.
It’s not.
It’s also (technically) about Victorian laws on street behaviour… including flying kites and beating carpets.
Let’s bring it back to reality 👇
You drive to site.
Park up.
Unload materials.
Work near the public.
Now ask yourself:
How many laws apply to that one job?
- Road traffic legislation
- Workplace transport risk
- Public safety duties
- Construction regulations
- Local authority controls
Already… a lot.
But here’s the part nobody talks about 👇
⚖️ Some of the laws still technically in force include:
📜 Town Police Clauses Act 1847
- Offence to obstruct the street
- Covers public nuisance behaviours
- Includes rules about beating carpets or shaking mats in public
- Also referenced in cases involving flying kites causing obstruction
📜 Metropolitan Police Act 1839
- Offence to obstruct public thoroughfares
- Includes causing annoyance to others in the street
- Covers things like sliding on ice
📜 Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892
- Focuses on street obstruction and public conduct
- Elements still technically exist despite being largely replaced
📜 Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982
- Covers licensing and public-facing activities
- Still relevant in parts—but inconsistently applied in legal registers
🤯 Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
All of the above sit within the same legal system as your:
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
- Construction regulations
- Road traffic laws
So when ISO says:
Identify your “legal and other requirements”
Where exactly do you stop?
🎯 The reality (that most people won’t say out loud):
There is no such thing as a fully comprehensive legal register.
Because if there was…
You’d be including laws from 1839, 1847, and 1892 alongside modern HSE legislation.
And no one does that.
🚨 The real problem?
Too many organisations:
- Overbuild their systems
- Overload their legal registers
- Chase “completeness” instead of clarity and usability
And end up with:
❌ Bloated HSEQ systems
❌ Registers nobody actually uses
❌ Compliance that looks good—but isn’t lived
💡 A better question to ask:
“Have we captured what could realistically affect us?”
Not:
“Have we captured everything ever written into law?”
🧾 Final thought:
If your legal register doesn’t include:
- An 1847 law about carpet beating
- An 1839 law about sliding on ice
- Or laws about flying kites in public places
Then you’ve already accepted it’s based on judgement.
So make it a good one.
👉 Call to action
If your ISO / HSEQ system feels:
- Overly complicated
- Difficult to maintain
- Or full of things nobody actually uses
It might not be non-compliant…
It might just be over-engineered.
At ACCENDO, we help businesses achieve ISO certification without unnecessary bureaucracy. If you’re ready to implement or evolve a management system that works with your business rather than against it, get in touch.
Visit us at azure-chinchilla-382567.hostingersite.com
