Frequently asked questions
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All companies with 5 or more people must have a health and safety policy. When creating a policy, employees should be part of the process to cover areas that you as an employer might not see. It should include a statement of intent, a list of who is responsible for what and information about how the main issues will be managed.
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All full-time employees are entitled to 28 days paid annual leave a year, so your holiday you can take could be 20 days and then bank holidays you don’t have to take as a holiday. Or you may have 28 days of holiday a year but you have to take the bank holiday days as holiday days or take them unpaid. If you are not sure you are being given the right amount of holiday you can go here to calculate the holiday you should be entitled to.
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Health and safety policies and risk assessments apply to all business with 5 or more people.
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The task of enforcing health and safety laws is shared between local authorities and the Health & Safety Executive HSE
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Some common workplace hazards include:
- Working at height – working with ladders/scaffolding/and others
- Blocking fire exits, clutter blocking exits, blocking sprinklers,
- Overloading power sockets and extra long extension leads as trip hazards
- Not handling chemicals correctly
- Working in confined spaces
- Not providing the correct safety equipment for workers – like eyes and ears protection and PPE
- Incorrect training when using Display Screen Equipment
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A health and safety inspector may visit your workplace at any time. But if it is a routine inspection, they may call ahead to make sure that the relevant staff are in.
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The HSE Health and Safety Law Poster must be shown in a visible and well-trafficked place in with workplace or each employee must be given a copy of it. Some of the other certificates you must also display are:
- Employers’ Liability
- Licensing Act
- Weight and Measures Act
- Food Labelling
- The Protection From Tobacco Act – to not sell to anyone underage
- No Smoking signs (in indoor areas)
- Fire Safety
- Food Hygiene Ratings – not a legal requirement but good practice
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A hazard is something that can cause harm. A risk is a chance that a hazard will cause harm. You can read our full glossary of Health & Safety terms to get a better understanding of terminology.
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You could either receive a hefty fine or in more serious cases, even go to prison. A breach in regulation compliance could result in up to £20,000 fine but if the individual is found to be deliberately negligent or breaking the law then this can result in unlimited fines and/or imprisonment.
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Emergency procedures are in place for various circumstances. You may have one for a fire, one for injuries, one for bomb threats and many more. Emergency procedures should be known by all staff and will help with a quick reaction to an emergency. People are more likely to respond reliably if they are well trained, rehearse plans, and have designated responsibilities. All of this should be part of an emergency procedure.
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This is one of the questions we are asked most often and we’re afraid there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer. Almost all health & safety legislation deliberately leaves decisions such as this to the employer. The HSE generally only gets involved when there’s an incident, so they would decide as part of any investigation both if the training was adequate and offered frequently enough. We have thousands of companies and most refresh training annually; certainly, we recommend Fire Safety Training Manual Handling DSE Training is repeated every 12 months.
Documents & other resources
Health & Safety Checklist
Download our free Health & Safety checklist to ensure a safe work environment and see which tasks you need to complete to keep employees safe.
Manufacturing Health & Safety Checks
We've partnered with Citation to provide you with a short guide to help with Manufacturing Health & Safety checks.
What Health and Safety roles and responsibilities does my business need to consider?
We've put together this guide, in partnership with Citation, to help businesses understand their Health & Safety roles and responsibilities.
How to reduce Health & Safety and HR costs and improve employee retention with training
In a recent survey, we found a number of areas we have helped our clients to reduce costs and help them to improve employee retention. Here's how…
Manual Handling Poster
Show employees the 12 steps to safe manual handling with this free poster.
A beginners guide to COSHH
We've partnered with Citation to provide you with a short guide on COSHH, the dangers of hazardous substances and how you can take the stress out of COSHH.
An introduction to tendering
In partnership with Citation, we've produced this guide to provide a refresher on tendering skills so you can learn how to effectively complete tender applications and stand out from the competition.
How prepared is your business for challenges?
In this guide, together with Citation's experts, we've created a checklist to help businesses determine if they are prepared for challenges or if there is room for improvement.
Understanding the benefits of ISO Certification
To help you gain a better understanding of the benefits of ISO accreditation's download this free guide put together by Citation's experts.
Health & Safety communication and engagement
This guide looks at what the law says about engaging with your people on Health & Safety issues, as well as effective communication methods.
Managing Legionella in your workplace
Together with Citation, we've put together this guide covering your responsibilities as an employer, as well as considerations for your Legionella risk assessment.
The Hierarchy of Hazard Control
As part of the 5 steps of risk assessment, step 3 "Control the risks" states that you need to decide which preventative measures to use to control the risks and reduce them.
5 Steps to Risk Assessments
This resource from our Risk Assessment Training takes you through a simple, widely used, step-by-step risk assessment process, which can be applied to most workplaces.
How to stop spreading germs
Researchers at the University of Bristol found the average sneeze or cough can send around 100,000 contagious germs into the air. Useful poster for workplaces to stop people from spreading germs.
Powerzone Chart
The Powerzone chart contains guidelines for lifting and lowering safely. Working within the guidelines reduces the risk, but does not guarantee your complete safety.
Fire Extinguishers Chart
The extinguishers chart provides a simple look-up table reminding you which fire extinguisher is suitable for which class of fire.
Fire Classifications Chart
This free printable PDF explains the different fire classifications including classes A, B, C, D, F and Electrical.
Employee Accident Report Form
This form, which can be downloaded and filled-in by hand, can be used by all employees to report Accidents, Ill-health or near-misses in the workplace.
A Cleaning Checklist for Kitchens
A simple cleaning checklist for all kitchens to use!
Lone Worker Checklist
Learners can download and fill out this checklist electronically (or manually if preferred) which will help learners to assess their current situation and spot any areas for improvement.
Lone Working Policy Template
This is an example containing suggestions of actions that may be taken to help Lone Workers remain safe. It's by no means an exhaustive list.
Health & Safety enforcements – what to look out for
We look at how employers can reduce Health & Safety and HR costs through training…
