Health & Safety Legal Obligations
Safety Cornwall Ltd enables employers to maintain compliance with health and safety legal requirements. Our aim is to help employers prevent harm or injury to employees or others and to provide them with demonstrable evidence of due diligence.
Employers must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees and the health and safety of non-employed persons whose health and safety may be affected by work activities.
If you employ 5 or more employees, you must prepare a health and safety policy statement which meets relevant criteria. Your policy must contain an organisational structure, details of your health and safety arrangements and a signed undertaking. You must review your policy periodically (eg annually) and bring it to the attention of all your workers.
Every employer must undertake suitable and sufficient risk assessments in respect of any work tasks or activities undertaken. If you have 5 or more employees, you must record the significant findings of your risk assessments and bring them to the attention of ALL your workers.
There are additional requirements in regard to higher-risk work activities such as work at height, or the use and operation of specific-risk work equipment, or the use of dangerous substances such as flammable liquids.
There are specific requirements where work tasks expose employees to occupational health hazards such as using or handling chemical substances, exposure to dust, noise, vibration or manual handling.
Where the risk assessment process identifies particularly hazardous work activities, then employers must prepare and implement safe systems of work, which should be regarded as safety rules for workers.
Where you propose to undertake a one-off work task which is particularly hazardous (eg, precarious work at height, such as working on or near fragile surfaces), you should prepare a safety method statement. It may also be necessary to extend your control of such work by way of a permit to work.
As the employer, you are obliged to monitor your level of conformance with regard to health and safety.
Employers must ensure that ALL workers are consulted in regard to their health and safety at work. This must include any part-time, casual, temporary, or agency workers as well as full time employees.
If migrant workers are employed who do not speak English, employers should translate health and safety information, signage, etc, into their first languages.
Employers must facilitate any wish by workers to nominate their own safety representatives to participate effectively in the consulting process.
Essential health and safety duties upon employers include the provision of information, instruction and training for workers, plus adequate supervision.
Employers must undertake periodic review of arrangements for health and safety, eg, at least annually or whenever there are significant changes to work activities.