Employers legal responsibility - A step by step guide 1. Register your new business with the Health & Safety Executive (if necessary) You may need to notify the Health and Safety Executive or your local authority about your business.
2. Take out Employer's Liability Compulsory Insurance Should an employee become ill or injured as a result of their work Employer's Liability Compulsory Insurance covers you against any claims that may be made. All businesses must have this.
3. Appoint a Health and Safety Officer The law says you must appoint a competent person to help you meet your health and safety duties. This can be someone within your organisation or an external consultant if you wish.
4. Write your health and safety policy This is a unique document that says who does what, when and how in terms of health and safety and sets out the arrangements you have put in place for managing health and safety in your business.
5. Assess the risks Decide what could potentially harm people and what precautions should be taken to prevent it. This is your risk assessment. You must act on the findings of your risk assessment, by putting sensible controls in place to prevent accidents and ill health and making sure they are followed.
6. Provide basic welfare facilities Employers must provide a safe and healthy environment for all employees. This includes toilets, washing facilities and drinking water, and appropriate lighting and temperature.
7. Provide free health and safety training and supervision Everyone who works for you, including self-employed people, needs to know how to work safely and without risks to health. So you need to train them and supervise their work.
8. Consult your workers Consultation means discussing health and safety with your workers allowing them to raise concerns and influence decisions.
9. Display the health and safety law poster This is required by law. The poster includes basic health and safety information and lets people know who is responsible for health and safety in your workplace. Or you can give workers a leaflet.
10. Understand RIDDOR reporting procedures The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), require you to report work-related accidents, diseases and near-miss incidents. Make sure you know how to report, even if you never need to.
11. Keep up to date You can follow the news in your sector through e-bulletins, news feeds, podcasts and texts to your mobile by signing up at
www.hse.gov.uk Back to top Health and Safety Legislation- Legal duties Detailed information can be found on at www.hse.gov.uk
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to enable first aid to be given to employees if they are injured or become ill at work. These Regulations apply to all workplaces including those with five or fewer employees and to the self-employed.
What is adequate will depend on the circumstances in the workplace. This includes whether trained first aiders are needed, what should be included in a first aid box and if a first aid room is needed. Employers should carry out an assessment of first aid needs to determine this.
The Regulations do not place a legal obligation on employers to make first aid provision for non-employees such as the public or children in schools. However, HSE strongly recommends that non-employees are included in a first aid needs assessment and that provision is made for them.
Back to top Assessment of first aid needs
Employers are required to carry out an assessment of first aid needs. This involves consideration of possible workplace hazards and risks, the size of the organisation and other relevant factors, to determine what first aid equipment, facilities and personnel should be provided. Trained first aiders must also be provided.
A free HSE leaflet is available from www.hse.gov.uk
Back to top What should I put in a first-aid box?
There isn’t a standard list of what a first aid box must contain because it depends on what the individual needs identified by your risk assessment are. However, as a guide, and where there is no special risk in the workplace, a minimum contents of first-aid items would be: