Section 5 of Occupational Safety and Health Act CAP 236A: Use of approved codes of practice in criminal proceedings
(1) Failure on the part of any person to observe any provision of an approved code of practice shall not render that person liable to any civil or criminal proceedings; but where in any criminal proceedings a party is alleged to have committed an offence by reason of a contravention of any requirement or prohibition imposed by an approved code of practice, the provisions of subsection (2) shall have effect with respect to that code in relation to those proceedings.
(2) Any provision of the code of practice which appears to the court to be relevant to the requirement or prohibition alleged to have been contravened shall be admissible in evidence in the proceedings; and if it is proved that there was at any material time a failure to observe any provision of the code which appears to the court to be relevant to any matter which it is necessary for the prosecution to prove in order to establish a contravention of that requirement or prohibition, that matter shall be taken as proved unless the court is satisfied that the requirement or prohibition was in respect of that matter complied with otherwise than by way of observance of that provision of the code.
(3) In any criminal proceedings—
(a) a document purporting to be a notice issued by the Director under section 4 shall be taken to be such a notice unless the contrary is proved; and
(b) a code of practice, which appears to the court to be the subject of such a notice, shall be taken to be the subject of that notice unless the contrary is proved.
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