health nad safety legislation

Health & Safety Legislation

Who needs health and safety training?

You do! Whether you are an employer or self-employed, are you sure that you’re up to date with how to identify the hazards and control the risks from your work? Do you know how to get help – from your trade association, your local Chamber of Commerce, or your health and safety enforcing authority? Do you know what you have to do about consulting your employees, or their representatives, on health and safety issues? If not, you would probably benefit from some training. Your managers and supervisors do! If you employ managers or supervisors they will certainly need some training. They need to know what you expect from them in terms of health and safety, and how you expect them to deliver. They need to understand your health and safety policy, where they fit in, and how you want health and safety managed. They may also need training in the specific hazards of your processes and how you expect the risks to be controlled.

Your employees do! Everyone who works for you, including self-employed people, needs to know how to work safely and without risks to health. Like your supervisors, they need to know about your health and safety policy, your arrangements for implementing it, and the part they play. They also need to know how they can raise any health and safety concerns with you. You should take into account the capabilities, training, knowledge and experience of workers; and ensure that the demands of the job do not exceed their ability to carry out their work without risk to themselves and others.

Some employees may have particular training needs, for example:

  • new recruits need basic induction training into how to work safely, including arrangements for first aid, fire and evacuation;
  • people changing jobs or taking on extra responsibilities need to know about any new health and safety implications;
  • young employees are particularly vulnerable to accidents and you need to pay particular attention to their needs, so their training should be a priority. It is also important that new, inexperienced or young employees are adequately supervised;
  • some people’s skills may need updating by refresher training.

Your risk assessment should identify any further specific training needs.

Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require you to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to enable first aid to be given to your employees if they are injured or become ill at work.

What is adequate and appropriate will depend on the circumstances in your workplace and you should assess what your first aid needs are.

The minimum first-aid provision on any work site is:

  • a suitably stocked first-aid box
  • an appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements

It is also important to remember that accidents can happen at any time. First-aid provision needs to be available at all times people are at work. Many small firms will only need to make the minimum first-aid provision.

Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires you to provide whatever information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of your employees.

This is expanded by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which identify situations where health and safety training is particularly important, eg when people start work, on exposure to new or increased risks and where existing skills may have become rusty or need updating.

You must provide training during working hours and not at the expense of your employees. Special arrangements may be needed for part-timers or shift workers.

You need to assess the risks to your employees while they are at work and to any other people who may be affected by the way you conduct your business. This is so that you can identify the measures you need to take to comply with health and safety law, which includes training and the provision of information.

Like many employers, you may not be in a position to provide this training on your own, in which case you will need competent help. If at all possible, you should appoint one or more of your employees. However, if there is no one with the relevant knowledge, experience and skills in your organisation who can be relied on to deal effectively with health and safety training, you need to enlist someone who has from outside.

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulations 10 and 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to provide their employees with health and safety information and training. This should be supplemented as necessary with more specific information and training on manual handling injury risks and prevention, as part of the steps to reduce risk required by regulation 4(1)(b)(ii) of the Regulations.’ The risk of injury from a manual handling task will be increased where workers do not have the information or training necessary to enable them to work safely. For example, if they do not know about any unusual characteristics of loads or about the system designed to ensure their safety during manual handling, this may lead to injury. It is essential that where, for example, mechanical handling aids are available, training is provided in their proper use.

Employers have responsibility for ensuring the health, safety and welfare of their employees and others who may have access to the workplace. These general duties include safety in relation to fire hazards, both from the work processes and activities, as well as general Fire Safety in the workplace.

Under the terms of the Regulatory Reform Order, Fire Safety training should be undertaken by all staff at regular intervals. Kent Safety Training recommends that refresher training should be carried out every year.

  • at the time when they are first employed; and
  • on their being exposed to new or increased risks because of
  • (i) their being transferred or given a change of responsibilities within the responsible person's undertaking;
  • (ii) the introduction of new work equipment into, or a change respecting work equipment already in use within, the responsible person's undertaking;
  • (iii) the introduction of new technology into the responsible person's undertaking; or
  • (iv) the introduction of a new system of work into, or a change respecting a system of work already in use within, the responsible person's undertaking.