All employers must have a clear policy for managing health and safety.
A company health and safety policy sets out the organisation’s general approach to health and safety, explains who is responsible for what and describes the practical arrangements in place to manage workplace risks. It should detail the health and safety aims and objectives of your organisation.
Many employers are unsure if they require a written health and safety policy and what needs to be included in such a policy.
In this article, we will detail what a health and safety policy is and show you how to formulate one for your organisation.
In Great Britain, all employers with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy.
If an employer has fewer than five employees, it must still manage health and safety, but the policy does not have to be written down. Even so, writing it down can be useful, particularly if the business grows or its risks change. The written-policy threshold is based on the number of people the business employs, be they seasonal, part- or full-time.
The need for a health and safety policy stems from the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It is the main law governing health and safety at work in Great Britain. It places general duties on employers, employees and certain self-employed people, including duties to protect employees and others who may be affected by work activities.
The philosophy behind the Health and Safety at Work Act is that it is better to prevent accidents rather than to wait for them to happen and then deal with employers with fines and investigations.
Creating a health and safety policy is a fundamental first step in this preventative approach. It begins an ongoing process of establishing a management system for controlling risks.
If you receive a visit from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or a local authority inspector, it is quite likely that your health and safety policy will be one of the documents they ask to see.
If an inspector asks to see a written policy and the employer is legally required to have one, failing to produce it may lead to enforcement action. In serious cases, breaches of health and safety law can result in prosecution.
A company health and safety policy must have the following three elements:
- Part 1: Statement of intent
- Part 2: Responsibilities for health and safety (also called the Organisation section)
- Part 3: Arrangements for health and safety (also called the Arrangements section)
The statement of intent outlines the goals and improvements that an employer will endeavour to achieve through their health and safety practices.
The statement of intent should be made up of two components, the employer’s goals (which are not quantifiable) and the company’s objectives (which are quantifiable). The aims may remain static, while the objectives are likely to change.
When writing a statement of intent, every effort should be made to keep the language simple and concise, and important points should be broken down into short, distinct units. The statement of intent does not need to be long. Clarity is far more important than length.
The policy statement of intent should be signed and dated by the head of the organisation. Any time there is a change to any section of the statement, it needs to be signed and dated again. The signature clearly indicates the person with whom authority lies, and the date indicates the relevance of the document.
Whilst a policy will be unique to the organisation, the statement of intent should set out the employer’s overall commitment to managing health and safety. It should include:
- The organisation’s general health and safety aims
- A clear commitment to meeting legal health and safety duties
- A commitment to providing safe working conditions, safe systems of work and suitable welfare arrangements, so far as reasonably practicable
- A commitment to consulting employees and providing relevant information, instruction, training and supervision
- A commitment to reviewing and improving health and safety arrangements where necessary
Details of specific health and safety responsibilities should be covered in the responsibilities section, while the practical steps used to control risks should be covered in the arrangements section.
A health and safety policy must include a clear list of personnel in charge of health and safety decisions. It should describe their individual responsibilities in regard to ensuring workplace safety. This section should begin with the head of the organisation who has overall, final responsibility for health and safety matters.
The next segment should list people who are responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the health and safety policy, for example, assistant managers, supervisors and team leaders.
Next, there should be precise details of the health and safety responsibilities of certain employees. For instance, who is to undertake risk assessments, develop emergency procedures, provide employees with health and safety training, and so on.
This segment may also include details of any third-party advisors who conduct accident investigations or act as consultants. Any persons that represent employees in health and safety matters should also be included, such as trade union safety representatives.
There should then be a statement on the general health and safety responsibilities of all employees.
Under health and safety law, employees have duties to:
- Take reasonable care of their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by their actions at work
- Co-operate with their employer, managers and co-workers so legal health and safety duties can be met
- Follow the organisation’s health and safety arrangements, including safe systems of work, training and instructions
- Inform their employer of dangerous work situations, health and safety concerns or shortcomings in protection arrangements
These responsibilities should be clearly communicated to employees and supported by practical arrangements that make safe working possible.
The policy should clearly describe the health and safety measures and practices that will be utilised for all systems and procedures within the company. This section details how the company plans to achieve its statement of intent.
What is contained in this segment will depend on the nature of the business and the hazards and risks unique to each individual workplace. However, in general, the health and safety measures and arrangements segment should include details on:
- Hazards and risks specific to the workplace
- Risk assessments
- Safe systems of work
- Health and safety training
- Staff health and safety consultation procedures
- Incident and near-miss reporting procedures
- Emergency and evacuation procedures
An HSE health and safety policy will be a meaningless bureaucratic exercise unless everyone in the organisation knows what’s in it and what it requires of them.
Once the policy has been produced, it must be shared with employees and kept accessible. This may be done through an intranet, employee handbook, email, noticeboard or induction process, depending on how the organisation communicates important information. The health and safety policy should also be regularly reviewed and updated.
The health and safety policy should be an essential component during forums such as health and safety committee meetings and should be reflected in induction, supervision, safety briefings and relevant training, so employees understand what the policy requires of them in practice.
If you are responsible for producing or reviewing a health and safety policy and want to be confident it would stand up to inspection, Human Focus’s IOSH Approved Managing Safely e-Learning builds the practical grounding in risk assessment, responsibilities, and control arrangements that the three sections of a compliant policy must reflect.
The course produces a verified record of completion that supports your compliance audit trail, and is suitable for managers and supervisors with health and safety responsibilities.
