General Health and Safety

Health and safety applies to your business

Health and safety applies to all businesses, no matter how small, even if you don't have any employees. It covers all your workers, however they work (including homeworkers) and whether they are paid or not. It also applies to all your customers, and to your wider environment. You have a duty of care not to endanger yourself, your staff, the public or to damage the wider environment through any of your activities or your waste.

Health and safety law

Health and Safety legislation in this country is overseen and enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, a non-departmental body (meaning it must account for its public funding but is independent of government). The HSE website is comprehensive and clear, and there are some excellent free and paid-for leaflets and resources. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing health and safety in businesses, shops and offices, and also offer advice, guidance and training.

Health and safety doesn't have to be expensive, time consuming or complicated. To find a free basic guide for small businesses, including two ready-made self-assessment forms for a risk assessment and a health and safety policy, look at An introduction to health and safety (363kb)

10 things you must do

The law says we must not put ourselves, other workers or the public in danger, and requires us to take certain steps to ensure this. Managing health and safety is about taking a methodical, regular approach to checking for hazards, removing or minimizing them and learning from experience.

The Health and Safety Executive says there are 10 things you must, by law, do:

Assess the risks - This means literally going around your business checking for hazards and risks to staff and the public (this means customers, suppliers and any external visitors). You must involve your staff and talk to them about health and safety. Risks aren't just physical hazards, they can also be noise, lighting, ventilation, cleanliness and stress. Don't forget particularly vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and disabled people. When you've identified them you'll need to find ways to remove or minimise them. This is your risk assessment (relevant HSE pages), possibly the single most important health and safety task. HSE produce two very useful guides: An introduction to health and safety (includes two templates, one for a risk assessment and one for a health and safety policy) and Five steps to Risk Assessment, a simple to follow process for achieving really useful risk assessments. The HSE also has a dedicated micro-site: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/index.htm
Have a health and safety policy - All business must have one. You must involve your staff and consult them on health and safety issues, and if you have 5 or more employees then you must write your policy down (though this is a good idea anyway). The policy sets out who does what regarding health and safety in your business, what you do in house and what, if any, expert help you get. It goes along with your risk assessment to form a unique document about how you are keeping you, your staff and your customers safe. Click here for the HSE pages on your health and safety policy.
Get Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance (ELCI) - if you employ even one member of staff (unless they are a close relative) you must have this and you must display the certificate at your workplace. You must be insured for at least £5 million though many insurers don't insure for less than £10 million. The HSE produce a guide The Employers Guide to ELCI. To get a policy talk to your insurance broker, search online or visit Business Link for advice on choosing an insurance adviser.
Train staff - you must provide free health and safety training (relevant HSE pages), for your staff so they know what hazards and risks they may face and how to deal with them, and, as best practice, it should be part of your induction process (the process you go through with new staff to help them understand how your business works and what is expected of them). HSE produce a guide: Health and Safety Training - What you need to know.
Get advice - The law says you must have competent advice (relevant HSE pages), to help you meet your health and safety duties. This can be workers from your business, external consultants/advisers or a combination of these. In practice you can appoint yourself or members of your staff to be responsible for staying up to date with heath and safety requirements and ensuring you comply, but whether it is you or someone else, you/they must have enough time to really undertake this job. HSE produce two useful guides: Getting specialist help with health and safety and Examples of Bad, Poor and Good External Health and Safety Advice.
Provide basic welfare - You must provide washing facilities and drinking water for all your employees, including those with disabilities. These are basic health, safety and welfare needs (HSE link). The HSE produce a guide: Workplace, Health, Safety and Welfare - A short guide for managers.
Consult employees - the law says you must consult employees (relevant HSE pages), on health and safety matters. It cuts both ways, by consulting them you make them aware of hazards, and they make you aware of difficulties and problems that you may not have picked up. The HSE produce a guide: Consulting employees on health and safety: A guide to the law.
Display a health and safety law poster - (and/or distribute the same information individually to employees in their induction packs or similar). The poster describes the Health and Safety law, what you, their employer, must do by law and what their obligations are (see below). You can order the poster from the HSE site, or download a free leaflet for workers, with the same information.
Report accidents - If you are an employer, self-employed or in control of work premises (ie you own your own building or your home is your place of work), by law you must report some work-related accidents (relevant HSE pages), diseases and dangerous occurrences. You can do this by phoning the HSE Incident Contact Centre (ICC) t: 0845 300 9923 (Monday - Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm).
Register with the HSE - If you are a new business and you plan to or currently employ workers, you will need to register with your Local Authority by ringing their Environmental Health Department (they will send you a form to fill in). Alternatively, if you are a factory or a farm, you will need to register with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 0845 345 0055.

In addition, if you employ agency or temp workers you should also be clear on your obligation to them: you share responsibility with the agency for their health and safety and this requires good communication and a sensitivity to agency and temp worker needs. After all, they will be new to your business and may not be fully aware of the hazards. Business Link provide a good guide to health and safety for agency and temp workers.

Employees obligations

Your employees are also bound by the law. They must:

take reasonable care of themselves and others at work
co-operate with you over health and safety especially over consulting, training and informing you of health and safety issues
correctly use work items and items provided for their health and safety (eg use protective goggles, carry their radio, use gloves etc)
not interfere with, or misuse, anything provided for their health, safety or welfare

Tourism, hospitality and catering health and safety issues

The HSE provide sector-specific advice for different industries. Their hospitality and catering health and safety pages and the entertainment and leisure health and safety pages highlight the most common hazards and the current awareness campaigns targeted at businesses like yours.

You can also review health and safety by topic , eg: slips and trips, noise, using computers etc.

Regularly review health and safety

Health and safety is an ongoing, constant responsibility. You should review your risk assessments every year, or more frequently if necessary. You should continue to consult with and train staff and take special care with new or young and inexperienced employees. Health and safety needn't be overcomplicated, or a burden. It should be a reflexive habit for you and your staff.

Take an online health and safety perfromance assessment

Business Link provide an online tool for reviewing your health and safety procedures. It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, is anonymous and will:

test your knowledge of hazards and how to minimise their risk
provide targeted guidance for improving health and safety in your business
compares you (anonymously) with other businesses across sectors and sizes

Click here to take Business Link's Health and Safety Performance Indicator. starter pack

Excellent HSE downloads and links:

An introduction to health and safety [363kb]
An clear, easy to understand guide to health and safety including two ready-made self-assessment forms for a risk assessment and a health and safety policy.

Five steps to Risk Assessment [140kb]
A clear guide to understanding what a risk assessment is, how to undertake one and how to make it work for your organisation.

HSE's Starter Pack
Available to order for £35.00 this pack contains everything a new or small business needs to begin to successfully manage Health and Safety at work.

HSE's managing risk website
These pages are dedicated to sensible risk management. They help you undertake the assessment, manage risk, provide examples and let you search by industry and topic for information relevant to your type of business.

Health and Safety Training - What you need to know
This guide helps you to identify, provide and find the training you and your staff need.

Workplace, Health, Safety and Welfare - A short guide for managers
This excellent short guide tells you what you must provide, as the basic minimum, for your employees in terms of toilet and washing facilities, eating, drinking and rest rooms, lighting, ventilation, clothing and changing areas and so on.

Workplace health, safety and welfare: Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 Approved Code of Practice and Guidance on Regulations
This is a paid for 51 page booklet.

Consulting employees on health and safety: A guide to the law
This guide shows you how to work with your employees to get the most from your health and safety measures.

RIDDOR Ring and Report [117kb]
This guides helps you to understand when and how you should report accidents, incidents and work related illnesses.