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Advice for businesses
Find advice to help businesses identify and comply with their legal obligations under health and safety law.
Health and safety is about preventing people from being harmed at work or becoming ill through work. Health and safety law applies to all businesses, however small. It covers employees, full or part-time, temporary or permanent, the self-employed, young people doing work experience, apprentices, charity workers, mobile workers and homeworkers. It also extends to any contractors or members of the public that visit your business.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Every employer has a duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to ensure, as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees whilst at work and that other persons who may be affected by their work activities are not exposed to risk to their health and safety.
Health and safety policy - if you employ five or more people you are required to prepare a written statement of your health and safety policy, describing the organisation and arrangements you have in place for carrying out the policy
Employers liability insurance - employers must take out and maintain approved insurance policies against liability for injuries or diseases to their employees caused by their work and a copy of your current employer's liability insurance certificate must be displayed at each premises
arrange for one or more "competent persons" to help you meet your duties under health and safety law
appoint an employee, yourself or an outside consultant, provided that the person appointed is competent
carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments of the risks to employees, the self-employed and persons affected by your undertaking, which may include members of the public and other persons' employees
provide information, instruction, training and supervision for employees to ensure risks are controlled so far as reasonably practicable
You should ensure that you have considered the health and safety risks to employees, as well as contractors or members of the public who visit your business. For detailed information refer to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website.
There are various issues that can have an impact on workers; these are some of the most common.
Stress
People's mental and physical health can be adversely affected by aspects of their working environment, producing feelings of anxiety and sometimes acute distress. Factors such as long hours, workload, uncertain expectations and lack of control over work tasks can lead to intense feelings of being unable to cope with such pressures, which can impact both physical and mental health. Read further information on stress in the workplace on the ROSPA website.
Musculoskeletal disorders
In 2020/21 musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 28 per cent of all work-related ill health cases, according to the HSE and can affect muscles, joints and tendons in all parts of the body.
An employer must provide a health and safety policy if they have 5 or more employees, however some hairdressers 'let out' chairs. In these cases, the hairdresser who rents the chair is not an employee. They are simply working at the owner's premises. As such, the Health and Safety at Work Act still imposes a duty on the owner to provide premises that fall within health and safety guidelines. Self employed people have a legal duty not to put other people at risk by the way they work. An employer must provide a risk assessment, which must be written if there are 5 or more employees.
The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for health and safety on construction sites. However, cases of air or noise pollutionfrom sites are dealt with by the council.
Further assistance
If you require further assistance on health and safety, you can check who you need to contact us.
It may be possible to resolve certain health and safety problems without contacting us or the HSE, for example by speaking to the person in charge of the work, your employer, or your union or employee representative.
