Health and safety
Who is affected?
Health and safety affects every business regardless of size. Common sense is the right approach to health and safety, and having good plans in place will help protect you, your staff and your customers. Depending on the type of business you run, health and safety laws will be enforced by either the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or your Local Authority (LA) Environmental Health Team.
Top tips
- Think about the hazards associated with your business activities/premises (e.g. slips and trips, manual handling, falls from height, vehicle movements, stress, exposure to asbestos).
- Assess suitable & sufficient steps that can be taken to prevent people from being harmed.
- Remove risks where you can, and where this is not possible, put measures in place to control them.
- Make a record of your risk assessment and any actions taken (this is a legal requirement if you employ 5 or more people).
- Ensure you have a written Health and Safety Policy. Your policy and risk assessments should be regularly reviewed.
- Give your employees clear instructions, information and adequate training on health and safety issues and the significant findings of your risk assessments (especially for new starters or young persons).
- Don’t forget to think about the safety of customers using your premises, contractors working on site and self-employed people working on your behalf.
- Provide good welfare facilities (e.g. toilets, rest areas, drinking water) and a healthy work environment (clean, light, ventilated);
- Make sure you have Employers’ Liability Insurance;
- Record accidents or incidents and report them to HSE or LA if they are serious including a death or major injury, staff off work for more than 7-days due to an accident, or if a member of public taken to hospital.
What to do next
If you have any questions about health and safety for your business or like some guidance on where to begin, please either complete our contact us form or email [email protected].