The health and safety policy the law requires

Key takeaways

Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires a written policy at five or more employees, revised as necessary and brought to employees’ attention.
A policy has three parts: the statement of intent, the organisation, and the arrangements.
The arrangements section describes how each significant risk is actually managed; a template that describes a different business fails.
Regulation 7 of the Management Regulations requires every employer to appoint a competent person, and the policy names them.

What the Act requires

Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to prepare, and revise as often as appropriate, a written statement of its general policy on the health and safety at work of its employees and the organisation and arrangements for carrying it out, and to bring it and any revision to the notice of all employees. The Employers’ Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975 exempt employers with fewer than five employees from the requirement that it be written, though the duty to have a policy remains.

The policy is one of the first documents an HSE or local authority inspector asks for, and one of the first an SSIP assessor, an insurer or a principal contractor asks for at pre-qualification. It is also the document a court reads to establish what the employer said it would do.

The three parts

The statement of intent: a page, signed and dated by the most senior person, stating the employer’s commitment and the standards it holds itself to. It is the part that gets framed, and the least important.
The organisation: who is responsible for what, from the board to the supervisor, including the competent person appointed under regulation 7 and the arrangements for consulting employees.
The arrangements: how each significant risk in the business is managed in practice, and how the system as a whole is run: risk assessment, training, contractors, incidents, emergencies, monitoring and review.

The arrangements section

This is the part most often copied from a template and the part inspectors read first, for the same reason: it is where a policy either describes the business or does not. A joinery workshop’s arrangements cover wood dust, machinery guarding, noise and manual handling; a care home’s cover moving and handling, fire with sleeping residents, infection control and violence. A policy whose arrangements section could belong to either has not been written for either.

Each arrangement should say what the risk is, what the control is, who is responsible, what records are kept, and where the detailed procedure lives. The policy does not have to contain every procedure; it has to show that they exist and connect them.

The competent person behind it

Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to help it comply with its duties. The regulations prefer an employee where one has the training, knowledge and experience; where no one does, an external adviser fills the role. The appointment does not transfer any duty to the adviser. It gives the employer the competence to meet duties that remain its own, and the policy’s organisation section names who holds it.

Keeping it alive

Review it annually and whenever the business changes: a new site, a new process, a new regulation, a serious incident.
Re-sign and re-date the statement of intent at every review; an undated policy is an expired one.
Bring it to employees’ attention in a way that can be evidenced: induction, briefings, a signed acknowledgement, not a folder on a shared drive.
Keep the arrangements consistent with the risk assessments, the training matrix and the procedures they point to. A policy that names a procedure that no longer exists is a finding waiting to be written.

In the record

This guide describes the law. What Stephen Laws has delivered under it is set out in Competent person and policy, Inspections and audits, and in the fabrication and process, construction and housing, retail fit-out sectors.

Questions this guide raises

Does a business with four employees need a written policy?

Not by law: the 1975 Exception Regulations remove the writing requirement below five employees. The duty to have a policy and to manage health and safety remains, and any client, insurer or SSIP scheme will ask for a written one regardless, so most small businesses write one anyway.

Who should sign the policy?

The most senior person in the organisation: the managing director, the chief executive, the owner or, in a school, the chair of trustees. Signature by the health and safety adviser signals that the leadership has delegated its accountability, which it cannot do.

The health and safety policy: what the law requires and what a good one contains