Health and safety at work

Jul 7 2005 By the Evening Gazette

Businesses have a legal responsibility to protect the health and safety of their staff and others on their premises, and there is a range of laws to ensure that they do this.

Policy

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires every employer with five or more employees to produce a written policy on health and safety. The policy should contain:

A general statement acknowledging your legal responsibilities.

An outline of the staff appointed to specific roles and their duties.

An outline of your procedures for ensuring appropriate standards are maintained.

An appendix can also be helpful to record the legislation relevant to your business, your policies on specific issues such as smoking, drugs, alcohol and how your staff will be informed about the policy and subsequent changes.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, you must appoint a person to be responsible for putting the policy into practice. Make a formal list of duties, and ensure that everyone knows who the responsible person is.

Their role will be to ensure that the safety standards and procedures outlined in the policy are adhered to on a day-to-day basis.

Fire

The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 (amended 1999) apply to all workplaces. You must obtain a fire certificate from the Fire Officer if:

The premises are used for sleeping, treatment or care, leisure or entertainment, teaching, training, worship or access to the general public.

The premises are classed as a factory, shop, office or railway and at least one of the following conditions apply:

- Twenty or more people are on the premises at any one time.
- Ten or more people work on floors above ground-level.
- Explosives or highly flammable materials are used or stored on the premises.

Assessing risk

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, all employers regardless of how many employees they have and the self-employed are required to carry out a risk assessment.

Businesses with five employees or more must record any significant risks discovered.

The purpose of the risk assessment is to help you identify the measures that your business needs to take to comply with health and safety law.

Examine whether employees are exposed to risk either because of the work they are doing or by the condition of the premises, plant, equipment or vehicles.

You are also responsible for any risk posed to others, such as contractors and members of the public, which might arise out of the nature of your work or the state of your premises.

Reporting accidents

To comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, you must establish an internal system for reporting and recording accidents.

You have to report work-related deaths, major injuries, diseases and dangerous incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and/or your local authority.

This is stipulated in the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).

Deaths, major injuries and dangerous occurrences must be reported immediately, and followed up with a report submitted to the enforcing authority within 10 days.

An accident which leaves a worker unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three days must be reported within 10 days.

Records must be kept for three years from the date of the incident and the enforcing authority may request to see them.

Protective equipment

Under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, employers must provide suitable safety equipment such as hard hats, reinforced footwear and reflective jackets for use at work, wherever there are risks that cannot be adequately controlled in other ways.

Employers have to assess what type of equipment is suitable to offer protection against the hazards of the job and to ensure compatibility where more than one item of equipment is needed.

The personal protective equipment must be kept clean and in good repair, stored correctly and replaced when necessary. Employees must be given adequate information about the equipment, and trained to use it.

First aid

Employers must have facilities to offer first aid to employees if they are injured or become ill at work. The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 and Code of Practice and Guidance outline the requirements:

Assess the level of first aid likely to be needed. To do this, consider the nature and degree of risk, the number of employees involved and the location of the business.

Extra consideration should be given to employees working in isolated locations, travelling through remote areas or using potentially dangerous tools and machinery.

The procedures for first aid should be detailed in your health and safety policy and all staff should be made aware of them.

At least one notice should be posted in each premises indicating the location of the first aid kit and the names and locations of the trained first aiders and appointed persons.

The HSE has guidelines on the number of first aid personnel a business should have, depending on the number of employees and the assessment of risk.

A first aider is someone who has passed a training course in administering first aid at work and holds a current first aid at work certificate. The training has to be approved by the HSE.

The certificates are currently valid for three years and employers need to arrange refresher training before they expire.

An appointed person is an employee who is selected to take charge in the event of illness or an accident. Their responsibilities will include calling an ambulance if needed, and restocking the first aid box.

An appointed person is not a certified first aider, so they should not attempt to administer first aid.

Training

Employers have an obligation to provide training for new employees as part of the induction process.

This needs to cover safety systems used in the workplace, fire safety and evacuation procedures, the health and safety policy, and the identity of employees responsible for first aid, fire safety and the reporting of accidents.

Secure premises

Contractors and visitors to your premises are entitled to the same considerations of health and safety as your employees and they should follow the same safety procedures.

For more detailed information, as well as practical advice, the Health and Safety Executive website (www.hse.gov.uk) is very useful.