Health & Safety when you have 5 employees or more
As soon as you have 5 employees or more you have a legal requirement to ensure you have full Health & Safety in place. Your obligations are outlined in the Safety at Work Regulations 1974.
How this changes from less than 5 employees is you now need to ensure you have:
- Written Health and Safety Policy
- Written Health and Safety Policy Statement
- Written Risk Assessments that are implemented in the business.
Depending on your industry and the work you carry out you may also need
- COSHH assessments
- Tool box talks
- ‘competent person’ either within your business or a consultant.
If you are not sure exactly what your business will require you can find details by visiting the HSE website. Every business is different and your competent person will be able to cover all aspects for you.
Your competent person should be fully qualified in all aspects of Health & Safety, this can prove to be an expensive requirement if you employ them full time. There are consultants that can do this for you where you pay a retainer fee per month to be kept up to date and provided with guidance and the latest legislation changes.
There are a number of resources on the HSE website that will be able to help you with any changes that may affect you as you continue to grow.
If there is anything you think we may be able to help you with in terms of your competent person resource get in touch.
