What are the legal responsibilities for health and safety for UK businesses?
The legal requirements for health and safety in the workplace can be a minefield, and it can be difficult to know exactly what, as an employer, you need to provide. We’ve compiled all the information you need to know to help you understand your responsibilities when it comes to keeping yourself, your employees, and your customers safe.
Most of the legal requirements for health and safety in the workplace centre around risk assessments. It’s vital that you carry out risk assessments to identify any possible hazards in your work environment, and take steps to manage these ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. This means that you need to minimise hazards as much as possible within your scope, whilst ensuring your actions remain proportionate to the risk.
So don’t worry about exerting huge amounts of time and money on a small risk, like a possible paper cut! You must appoint a competent person to be in charge of health and safety, who can compile a policy to help keep your workers and customers safe.
Keeping your employees safe
These risks need to be relayed to your employees, along with information and training on how to deal with them. Consultations on the risks should also be made, either directly with your employees, or via a representative appointed by the workforce or by a trade union.
You must also provide good lighting, heating, and ventilation, along with staff facilities like toilets and washbasins. Employees must have access to a copy of the Health and Safety Law Poster, either on the wall or as a hand-out. There is a 48-hour maximum working week, and if your employees wish to opt out of this, they must do so in writing. After six hours’ work, employees are entitled to an uninterrupted twenty-minute break, so they don’t get over-tired, and have time to eat if needed.
It’s important to have a full first aid kit on site, along with appointed first aiders who know how to use the medical equipment it contains. The contents of the kit should match the risks you have already identified - if you’re buying a new one, it’s a good idea to look for British Standard (BS) 8599, although this isn’t a legal requirement.
As much as possible, minimise the need for employees to carry out any manual handling that runs the risk of injury. Risk assessments will help you to manage this, and training can be done on how to safely carry heavy objects if necessary. If your employees work with equipment, the equipment should remain maintained to a safe and suitable standard. It’s important that employees are properly trained on how to use the equipment, and are given any additional items to keep them safe during use, such as goggles.
There are also some more specialised legal requirements for health and safety that it’s good to be aware of. If your workers routinely use the computer or other digital screens for the bulk of their work, a risk assessment is once again needed. You must supply them with adequate screen breaks, as well as eye tests and furniture such as desks and chairs. If you work with personal protective equipment, it must be supplied free of charge, and employees must be briefed on how to use it correctly and safely.
Reporting health and safety incidents
No matter how careful you are, sometimes accidents happen. This is why you need Employers’ Liability Insurance - and yes, this is one of the legal requirements for health and safety! This can help you to pay compensation in the case of an accident, and if you’re not insured you can actually end up being fined.
If something does end up going wrong, make sure you report it to HSE. You’ll need to make a report in the case of a workplace death, injuries requiring hospital treatment, injuries that disrupt an employee's ability to work for longer than a week, and certain occupational injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. However, as long as you’re following all the legal requirements for health and safety, your workplace will be as safe as it can be - and Crysp can help you achieve just that.
At the end of the day, a lot of it’s common sense. And with Crysp supporting you, you can get back to focusing on your business, whilst our comprehensive management platform streamlines all the complicated legal requirements for health and safety, ensuring you’re not going to get in trouble for forgetting something. We’ll save you time and money, making it easy for you to keep on top of your workplace health and safety. For more information, find out how it works. We also have a handy tool to help you check your risk, which can help kickstart your journey to a safer workplace.