What health and safety actually requires of a UK employer

Health and safety, in law, is a duty on you as the employer: work out what could hurt someone, control it so far as is reasonably practicable, and be able to show what you did. That duty sits in section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and it starts with your first employee. Size changes the paperwork, not the obligation. Three requirements switch on at five employees. Almost nothing else does.

What is health and safety in law?

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 puts it in one sentence: it is the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

The phrase that does the work is so far as is reasonably practicable. It is not a duty to remove every risk. It is a duty to weigh the risk against the time, cost and effort of controlling it, and to act unless the two are grossly disproportionate. A guard on a machine is reasonably practicable. Closing the factory is not.

That wording is also why "we could not afford it" rarely survives an inspection. The test already accounts for cost. Arguing it again afterwards means arguing the balance was struck correctly, with evidence, and the evidence is the risk assessment you either did or did not write.

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is one of five duties that run alongside each other:

• Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 covers your own employees.
• Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 covers everyone else affected by your work: contractors, visitors, delivery drivers, the public.
• Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 puts a duty on employees to take reasonable care of themselves and others.
• Section 9 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 stops you charging an employee for anything done to meet a statutory requirement.
• Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 turns the general duty into a specific one: assess the risks.

Who is responsible for health and safety in the workplace?

You are, as the employer. That answer does not change if you hire a consultant, appoint a manager, or write it into somebody's job description.

What those things change is who does the work. The accountability stays with the employer, and in practice with the directors and senior managers who make the decisions about resourcing it.

Three roles sit underneath that:

The competent person. Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires you to appoint one or more competent persons to help you comply. Competence means sufficient training, experience and knowledge for the work in question, not a particular certificate. The regulation says you should appoint from among your own employees where you have the competence, and go outside only where there is nobody suitable inside. Plenty of small businesses read that the wrong way round. We have written separately on whether you need a competent person when you have no in-house expert.

Employees. Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is a real duty rather than a formality. An employee who removes a guard or ignores a method statement can be prosecuted personally, and occasionally is.

Directors. There is no separate statutory duty on directors under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, but section 37 of that Act makes an officer of a company personally liable where an offence was committed with their consent or connivance, or was attributable to their neglect.

What health and safety actually requires you to do

Here is the practical version, with what triggers each one.

Two of those thresholds are worth reading closely, because they are the ones people get wrong in both directions.

The risk assessment duty has no threshold. Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 applies to every employer. What changes at five employees is regulation 3(6) of those Regulations, which requires you to record the significant findings. A business with four employees still has to assess the risks. It just does not have to write the findings down.

The written policy exception is a real exception. Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires a written statement of your general policy. The Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975 except any employer who "employs less than five employees" from that subsection. Below five, no written policy is required. At five, it is.

Counting is by employees rather than full-time equivalents, and it is "for the time being". A business that runs four people through winter and nine through summer crosses the threshold in summer.

Beyond the table, most of what an inspector actually asks for is evidence that the assessment led somewhere: training records, maintenance records, the accident book, and someone who can explain a decision. A file of assessments with nothing downstream of them is the most common finding we see on a gap analysis audit.

How much of this applies to a small, low-risk business?

Less than the internet suggests, and we would rather say so.

If you run an office of six people with no machinery, no hazardous substances and no work at height, your obligations are real but they are narrow: a risk assessment covering display screen work, slips, trips and fire; a written policy because you are over five; a competent person, who can be you if you have taken the trouble to learn the subject; and reporting under RIDDOR if something happens.

That is a genuine afternoon's work to set up and an hour a quarter to keep current. You do not need a consultant for it, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

Where outside help starts to earn its cost is when one of these is true:

• You have machinery, hazardous substances, work at height, vehicles moving on site, or confined spaces.
• You operate from more than one site, so consistency stops being automatic.
• Someone has been hurt, or you have had contact from the HSE or your local authority.
• You have inherited a business and do not know what condition the documentation is in.
• When you just don't want to get drawn into a subject you know little about and it becomes cost effective to use an external consultant who can keep you up to date, keep the paperwork up to date and take any worries away. In short you have enough other things keeping you awake at night.

The fourth one catches people out most often. Duties attach to the undertaking, so acquiring a business acquires its exposure. If that is where you are, an ongoing compliance partnership is usually cheaper than the alternative of finding out in an inspection.

For the legislation itself, in more depth than this page goes into, see our guide to UK health and safety legislation for SMEs.

Frequently asked questions

What is health and safety? It is the body of law requiring employers to protect people from harm arising out of work. The central duty is in section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of your employees.

Who is responsible for health and safety in the workplace? The employer. Appointing a manager, a competent person or an external consultant changes who does the work, never who is accountable for it. Directors can also be personally liable under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 where an offence is attributable to their neglect.

Do I need a written health and safety policy? Only if you employ five or more people. The Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975 except employers with fewer than five employees from section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The duty to assess risks applies from your first employee either way.

How many employees before I have to write down my risk assessment? Five. Regulation 3(6) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings. Below five you must still carry out the assessment.

What does "so far as is reasonably practicable" mean? It means weighing the size of the risk against the time, cost and effort of controlling it, and acting unless the two are grossly disproportionate. It is not a duty to eliminate all risk, and it is not a defence that a control was simply expensive.

Can I be prosecuted if nobody was hurt? Yes. The duties in sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 are about exposure to risk rather than about injury. A prosecution can follow an inspection where no one has been harmed.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 2, 3, 7, 9 and 84
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulations 3 and 7
• Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975