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If you use display screen equipment for at least an hour or more every day – or a significant proportion of your work – then this would class you as DSE user. The DSE Regulations apply to you regardless of whether you’re at a fixed workstation, a mobile worker, work from home, or if you’re a hot-desker. There are some situations where the regulations don’t apply, these are:

• Driver’s/control cabs for vehicles or machinery
• Screens on board any form of transport
• Display screens that are intended for public use, e.g. electronic information display in a shopping centre
• Portable devices that are not used for prolonged periods of time
• Calculators, cash registers, or any other equipment with a small data or measurement screen, or
• Typewriters of traditional design – “window typewriters”

You should not ask any questions regarding personal information if it is not relevant to the job. Questions relating to pregnancy, children, and parental responsibility are likely to be discriminatory and could be used as evidence that you intend to discriminate. Questions that you ask in an interview, and which are relevant to the job, should be asked to both men and women equally.

If users request an eye test from an employer because they have to use DSE, then the law states the employer must arrange and pay for one. They must also provide employees with glasses if they need them for DSE.

Employers have to provide health and safety training for their employees including DSE Training and DSE Assessments. This should include how to avoid risks associated with DSE and should encourage good DSE practices like good posture.

No matter the size of your company; how many employees you have, customers you serve, or what your annual turnover is, the GDPR applies to you. That magic 250 employee threshold is only mentioned once in the regulation and that’s in relation to record keeping. The GDPR requires that you keep detailed records of all processing activities – including records of consent, decision making, privacy notices etc. – but with fewer than 250 employees, you don’t need to. However, the rest of the GDPR still applies in full.

If the incident fits the criteria of the ‘what are reportable injuries’ section then it must be reported. If it doesn’t then it does not need reporting.