Every employer in the UK has a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their workers and anyone else affected by their business activities. Getting this right is not optional; it is a core legal obligation and a fundamental part of running a responsible business. This article offers a high-level introduction to health and safety laws for employers, covering your core legal duties as an employer and practical steps and best practices to manage workplace risks.
What Laws Govern Health and Safety?
The main law governing workplace health and safety in the UK is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Act). This Act sets out the core duties that apply to employers, directors, managers and employees.
The Act also provides the framework for more detailed health and safety rules.
One of the most important supporting rules is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. These regulations require your business to assess workplace risks and put appropriate systems in place to manage them.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the main regulator for workplace health and safety. It offers guidance, sets enforcement policies, and works to improve safety standards at work.
HSE inspectors can visit your workplace, investigate incidents, and take enforcement action when needed. In some industries, local authorities also enforce health and safety laws.
What Are Your Business’s Key Obligations?
Protecting Employees and Others
Your responsibility also covers anyone affected by your business activities. This includes:
- contractors;
- customers;
- visitors; and
- members of the public.
The goal is to create a safe workplace for your staff and protect everyone affected by your business from harm.
Health and Safety Policy
If your business has five or more employees, you need a written health and safety policy. This policy should explain your approach to health and safety and describe the steps you take to manage workplace risks.
You should make sure your employees know about the policy and understand how it applies at work. Even if a written policy is not required, it can still be helpful for smaller businesses to have one.
Your policy should match the nature of your workplace, your industry, and the type of business you run.
Running Risk Assessments
You must assess the work-related risks your employees face, as well as the risks your activities create for others. The law requires you to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments.
In practice, you need to examine how work is actually done. Consider:
- the workplace environment;
- the equipment you use;
- the substances you handle; and
- how your team performs tasks.
Identify who could be harmed and how that harm might occur. Once you identify hazards, decide what steps you will take to remove or reduce the risks. This may involve:
- changing work processes;
- improving equipment;
- introducing safety procedures; or
- providing personal protective equipment.
If your business has five or more employees, you must record the key findings of your risk assessments.
Review and update your risk assessments regularly, especially when workplace conditions, equipment, or staff responsibilities change.
Depending on your business, you may also need to carry out specific assessments, such as fire risk assessments, display screen equipment assessments for computer users, or assessments for food preparation and cooking.
Health and Safety Arrangements
Your business must set up suitable arrangements for planning, organising, controlling, monitoring, and reviewing health and safety. These arrangements are the systems your business uses to manage safety day-to-day.
Appointing Competent Persons
You need to appoint one or more competent people to help your business follow health and safety law.
A competent person is someone with the right knowledge and experience to spot hazards and suggest practical ways to control them.
Information and Training Considerations
You must give your staff clear information about workplace risks and how you control them. Training should be practical and match the work employees do. Provide training when:
- employees start;
- change roles; or
- take on new tasks and keep it up as needed, so everyone understands hazards and knows how to work safely.
Training should also cover emergency procedures, like evacuations and other safety steps for your workplace.
You may also need to think about whether some workers need extra support or training, depending on their role or personal situation.
Consulting Your Staff
You must consult employees on matters relating to workplace health and safety. In smaller businesses, consultation may take place directly with employees. In larger organisations, you may conduct consultation through health and safety representatives.
Consultation should be meaningful. You should listen to employees’ concerns, discuss the risks they face, and involve them in deciding how to control those risks. Employees often have valuable practical knowledge of their work and may suggest effective ways to manage risks.
Key Health and Safety Roles
You should also consider whether your business needs to appoint people to specific safety roles. Many businesses appoint a trained first aider who can respond to workplace injuries or medical emergencies. Also, ensure your workplace has a fully stocked first aid kit.
Some businesses also appoint a fire marshal. This person helps oversee fire safety, supports fire risk assessments, and coordinates evacuations. Fire marshals also check that fire safety equipment and signs are in place and help staff during emergencies.
Workplace Facilities
You must make sure your workers have access to suitable welfare facilities. This includes:
- drinking water;
- toilets;
- washing facilities;
- soap; and
- towels or hand dryers.
Your workplace should also have a suitable place for staff to eat and rest. Your premises should be clean, well-ventilated, properly lit, and kept at a reasonable temperature. Workspaces should also have enough room for workstations and seating.
Home Workers
Your health and safety responsibilities also cover employees who work alone or from home. Lone workers are employees who work alone without close supervision. Because they work alone, they may face different risks than other workers.
Home workers are employees who work from home, using either their own equipment or equipment provided by the employer.
You should carry out risk assessments for both lone workers and home workers. Sometimes, this means discussing risks with the worker remotely.
You should provide these workers with appropriate training, supervision and information. Maintain regular contact with them and address any incidents or concerns promptly.
Your business has the same health and safety responsibilities for these workers as for employees who work on site.
Recording and Reporting Duties
If a workplace accident happens, it is important to investigate thoroughly. The goal is to identify the cause, understand the underlying factors, and implement measures to prevent it from happening again. Many workplaces keep an accident book to record these incidents.
You must also report certain incidents under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Maintaining Insurance
You must hold employers’ liability insurance. This insurance compensates employees who become ill or injured at work. You must ensure the policy provides at least £5 million of cover and is issued by an authorised insurer.
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Why Health and Safety Is So Important
Poor safety performance can also harm your organisation’s reputation and lead to more scrutiny from regulators, investors, and the public.
For this reason, boards should treat health and safety as a key part of risk management and corporate governance. Directors and senior managers should ensure the business has appropriate health and safety systems in place. They should also ensure they receive regular updates on safety risks, incidents, and overall safety performance.
In some businesses, you may delegate day-to-day oversight to a director, a senior manager, or a committee. However, your organisation’s leadership retains overall responsibility.
When Individuals Can Be Liable
Your company can commit a health and safety offence. In some cases, you, as a director, manager or company secretary, can also be held criminally responsible.
This can happen if your company commits an offence and the breach occurs with your consent or connivance, or because you neglect your duties.
If a court convicts a director in this way, it may also ban them from acting as a director.
Manslaughter and Corporate Manslaughter
If a workplace death happens, the legal consequences can be much more serious. An individual may face prosecution for gross negligence manslaughter if their conduct was so negligent as to constitute a criminal offence.
Your company can also face prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. This applies if the way you manage your company causes a death and amounts to a serious breach of your duty of care.
This offence focuses on the organisation itself, not individual directors, although individuals may still be liable under other laws.
Business owners have a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace for employees and customers. Download our free guide.
Key Takeaways
If you operate a business in the UK, you have extensive duties to protect employees and others affected by your activities. Your responsibilities include assessing risks, implementing safety systems, appointing competent people, consulting with employees, providing training, and keeping records. It is also important to have a clear health and safety policy, proper accident reporting procedures, and suitable employers’ liability insurance.
LegalVision provides ongoing legal support for businesses through our fixed-fee legal membership. Our experienced employment lawyers assist businesses in the health and safety and compliance space, and more, with unlimited access to specialist lawyers for a fixed monthly fee. To learn more about LegalVision’s legal membership, call 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The main law is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It sets out the general duties that employers must follow to protect employees and others affected by their activities.
Health and safety laws apply to businesses of all sizes. However, some requirements, such as having a written health and safety policy or recording risk assessments, only apply if you have five or more employees.
Breaches can result in large fines or imprisonment for individuals. Poor safety performance can also damage your reputation and attract greater scrutiny from regulators and investors.
Yes. Your duties extend to home workers and lone workers. You must conduct risk assessments, provide training, maintain regular contact, and promptly address any incidents or concerns.
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