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Ensuring the Legal Standard of Health & Safety in Your Business

Whether you've recently launched a new business or just taken

over from a previous owner, it's likely you're floundering

amidst the multitude of regulations and requirements the law

bestows upon you. Perhaps the worst mistake of all is complete

ignorance - something which is hard to avoid when there are

several hundred issues vying for your attention.

So what exactly do you need to cover in your workplace? It's all

very well putting the equipment and workers you need into a room

with some desks, but just like setting up a hamster cage - you

need to be aware of safety concerns. Luckily though, it's

unlikely you'll have to worry about your employees trying to

gnaw their way out...

So what do you need to look into? Follow these guidelines and

you can be sure your workplace falls under government

requirements to ensure you do everything you can to make your

business safe and healthy for workers and the environment.

1. Fire Safety

It's highly likely that your local fire station will have a

designated Fire Safety officer who will be more than pleased to

talk to you about fire safety in your workplace. The kind of

things they'd be asking you to look at are escape routes,

fire-fighting equipment (which requires regular maintenance),

emergency lighting, staff training, storage of flammable

materials, fire alarms and fire-resistant doors and walls.

Some businesses require a fire certificate - this is you if your

workplace is a public place (restaurant or shop), has more than

one business operating in the same building, or employs more

than 20 people (or more than 10 of your people work above or

below the ground floor).

New legislation coming into effect in 2006 will also require

that your Fire Safety is put in the hands of a responsible

person at your workplace. Designating those responsibilities to

one of your employees can be efficient delegation, and also of

course increase staff morale (by demonstrating confidence in

their abilities).

By far though, the best first step is to get in touch with your

local Fire Officer. Phone the non-emergency fire station number

and ask them for some information.

2. Risk Assessment

Every workplace is expected to carry out risk assessment, in

order to ensure that every precaution has been put into place.

If there are more than five people in your office, you are also

expected to record your risk assessments and store them for

reference.

When carrying out your assessment, you should be looking for

potential hazards such as trips or falls, tasks carried out at

height, possible exposure to toxins, high noise levels, moving

vehicles and exposure to fire and explosions.

You can find more information on properly putting together and

recording a risk assessment here. As a conclusion to your

risk assessment, you will also want to designate a First Aider

amongst your employees, and ensure they have covered the basic

first aid courses.

3. Sanitary Facilities

There are some basics standards of comfort that all businesses

are expected to maintain for their employees and clients. These

include adequate and sanitary lavatory facilities, hand towels

and soap. Hot running water and drinking water should also both

be available.

Room temperature should be at least 16 degrees Celcius for

seated and relatively inactive employees, or 13 degrees Celcius

for active and mobile employees. If your room temperature falls

below these levels, you must provide local heating such as fan

heaters or gas heaters.

Comfort and sanitation is often a matter of common sense, and

keep in mind that your employees have no choice but to come to

their place of work every day. Make it a comfortable, appealing

and clean place of work, and not only will you be fine in the

eyes of the law but you'll have a happy workforce too.

4. Equipment Safety

The Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)

state that you must ensure all equipment given to employees is

safe and of good standard. Depending on your business, this may

encompass a very large part of the work you will have to do to

make your workplace safe and legal. For workshops and building

contractors, all your machinery will need to be tested and

regularly maintained. Even in a small office, ensure all

electrical equipment is tested and certified (this is not a

legal requirement, but you are required by law to ensure

electrical equipment is as safe as you can make it, and testing

covers all the legalities) You also have a responsibility to

ensure all employees are fully trained to use the equipment they

work with, and you can benefit from having such training

documented somewhere for future reference.

It is also a good idea to have some focus on employee health,

such as posture (for chair based workers), eye-strain (when

using screens and computers), repetitive strain injury and other

work-related health risks. Investing in your employees in this

way will pay dividends.

5. Reporting Accidents

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In accordance with the Recording of Injuries, Diseases &

Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), you are

required to document any of those stated occurrences in your

workplace. Such records must be kept at your usual place of

business for at least three years after the fact, and you can

store them in whatever form you please. Hand written, typed and

electronic reports are all fine, or you can use the statutory

Accident Book (B1510) as a record.

Occasionally an incident may have to be reported to the

authorities, if it is particularly serious. Major injuries, any

resulting in death, certain diseases and any injury preventing

an employee carrying out their duties for over three days should

all be reported to the authorities.

For more clarification on what accidents need to be reported,

and how to keep concise and legal records of staff mishaps, see

this page.

In a first read-through, that might all seem overwhelming, but

once put into action a lot of these things take care of

themselves. Good Electrical Testing companies, for example, will

give you the option of booking maintenance and re-testing so

that you don't need to remember yourself. Delegating

responsibility to staff members saves a bit more memory, and

documentation and reports are easy to keep if you don't leave

them to build up.

You can find further helpful sources of information on Health &

Safety for business-owners at these websites:

Book a Course on Health & Safety

Health &

Safety Homepages

Governments Webpages for Health & Safety at

work

Health & Safety Executive for

England

Health & Safety Executive for

Northern Ireland

American Health & Safety

Institute

U.S Department of Labour

About the author:

About the Author: Electrical Testing Surveyors Ltd are a

well established and fully qualified electrical installation and

portable appliance testing company, able to provide testing to

companies and organisations all over the UK. You can reach them

at info@electrical-testi

ng.co.uk and find more information on their website.