Health & safety at work

Health and safety applies to all workplaces across the UK. From hospitality to healthcare, construction to retail, each business will have their own environmental hazards and safety risks to address.

By prioritising health and safety in your workplace, not only are you taking the appropriate steps to keep workers safe but you’re also complying with health and safety laws.

In this guide we cover the essential information you need to know to form the basis for robust health and safety policies and procedures in your business.

The importance of workplace health and safety

It doesn’t matter whether you are a small startup, SME, or large organisation, health and safety must be on your radar. It is important for a wide range of reasons. Of course, the most obvious being the safety of workers, visitors and customers to your business premises. But there are also other factors you may not have considered before.

For employees:

By prioritising health and safety in your workplace, you can protect your employees’:

• Physical Safety            

• Mental Wellbeing       

• Financial Security       

• Job Satisfaction           

• Emotional Wellbeing

Working in a safe environment not only makes a worker feel safe to do their job but they are more likely to feel supported at work. Improving their mental wellbeing and job satisfaction.

For employers:

As an employer your priority should be reducing the risk of workplace incidents. By doing this you will benefit from:

• Legal Compliance     

• Cost Reduction           

• Improved Productivity             

• Reputation Management      

• Reduced Absenteeism           

• Boost in productivity

• Insurance and liability benefits

Statistics and impact:

According to recent data from the HSE, health and safety incidents can cost a business dearly:

• Across 2022/2023 it was estimated that injuries and illnesses related to working conditions cost businesses £21.6 billion

• Businesses lost 33.7 million working days (2023/24) to workplace injuries and ill health

These are often due to poor training, a lack of understanding and/or safety measures in a workplace.

But health and safety doesn’t have to be costly nor complicated. If you establish the right policies and procedures and train your employees to understand them, then you can prevent and manage accidents or injuries in the workplace.

Health and safety legislation you need to know

There are various health & safety laws to consider, but the primary regulation is the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA—or HSW). You must follow these laws—it’s your legal obligation as an employer to do so.

If your business uses chemicals, fumes, dust or biological agents, you must comply with Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) to assess exposure and put the right controls in place.

The main objectives of the Health and Safety at Work Act are:

1. Ensuring the health and safety of employees at your business.

2. Ensuring the welfare of employees.

3. Protecting individuals within your premises—whether staff, customers, or visitors.

4. Establishing control measures to store explosive/flammable/dangerous substances.

However, there are other laws you should be aware of. These range from containing explosives, to managing the use of display screen equipment.

Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR)

This puts a duty on you to assess and manage risks to employees from their daily activities.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

Covers the requirements for accommodation standards at your workplace.

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

Details the actions you require to ensure the wellbeing of staff when using DSE (such as computers).

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, amended in 2022

Clarifies where risks aren’t controllable through other means, you should use PPE (for example, facemasks and gloves).

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

The guide to health & safety when employees lift and move objects around your business.

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

Ensures you provide adequate equipment for staff for safe use to complete their duties.

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)

Employers, as well as people who are self-employed and people who are in control of a premises, must report specified incidents in the workplace.

Working at Height Regulations 2005

Provides guidance on the safety of workers when working at various heights. With an aim to prevent workplace injuries from falls.

The Working Time Regulations (1998)

While not directly related to health and safety, the Working Time Regulations ensure workers' wellbeing is protected providing a maximum working hours limit for employees, per week.

Health and safety practices

To stay compliant with this legislation and to keep your staff safe, you must implement appropriate health and safety processes. The very basics of health and safety practices in the workplace include:

• Risk Assessments     

• Incident Management            

• Emergency Response             

• Training and Awareness

Some staff work alone or off-site; lone working presents unique risks and needs specific controls, and regular health & safety audits help you find and fix gaps early.

The cost of poor health and safety

The obvious costs of bad health and safety are the legal costs, hefty fines, compensation and insurance premiums. Whenever a health and safety incident occurs in a workplace, the onus is almost always on the business. Meaning business owners will cover the costs. Which, in some cases, can cost business hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Direct costs:

Costs directly related to an incident occurring include:

• Fines and legal fees

• Compensation payouts

• Damage to property and equipment

• Medical expenses

• Investigation costs

• Repair and cleanup costs

These alone could have a detrimental impact on a business’ finances, but add on the indirect costs and it’s not surprising that many businesses fail to stay in operation after a major health and safety incident or breach of health and safety laws.

Indirect costs:

Additional indirect costs are those which can have a lasting impact on a business’ reputation and finances in the long-term:

• Lost productivity

• Lost sales and business opportunities

• Increased insurance premiums

• Reputational damage

• Staff morale and turnover

• Lost expertise and experience

• Management time

• Loss of trust

Proactive health & safety audits help cut both direct and indirect costs by catching issues before they become incidents.

How can you promote a culture of safety in your workplace?

In order to mitigate the risks and to minimise the impact of a health and safety impact, robust health and safety procedures are essential. Across our range of health and safety resources we cover topics such as risk assessments, fire safety at work, hazards at work, what to do if an accident occurs in your workplace, lone working and COSHH. All of which provide the steps you must follow to keep staff safe and stay compliant with legislation. Educating yourself, managers, and your staff is one of the most important steps in promoting a safe workplace.

Choosing the right approach ot managing health and safety at work will also ensure that your workplace is safe.

Staff training

Routine training for all employees is an excellent way to make sure everyone is aware of their responsibilities. from general health and safety training to more specific industry-focused courses, BrightSafe offers a wide range of e-learning courses to keep you and your team up to date on the latest procedures and best practices for staying safe at work.

With our built-in learning management system, you can:

• Assing training courses to specific members of the team

• Track and log when courses have been completed

• Access courses from anywhere with the mobile app

• Browse a range of course types to find ones that are right for your business

With the right health and safety training, your employees may spot health and safety hazards themselves. And they have a legal right to refuse to complete certain work tasks if they are deemed unsafe.

It is your responsibility to ensure that all health and safety issues are resolved, and staff are not subjected to unsafe working conditions, practices, or environments.

Health & safety software

There’s a lot of legislation covering workplace injury and safety measures. And it can be difficult keeping up with them all. 

To avoid a reputation as an employer who skips responsibilities, using health & safety software can help you stay compliant. It also takes a lot of the stress out of the process.

The software allows you to:

• Create and manage risk assessments

• Add tasks to help control measures and reduce hazards

• Record workplace accidents and carry out investigations

• Store all your policies and documents in secure cloud-based storage

On top of the software, our services are backed by health and safety professionals, available to provide you with safety advice when you need it!

Discover how health & safety software can support your business today with a free product demo.

The role of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE)

This is the UK government agency that’s responsible for regulating health and safety in businesses. 

So, the health & safety executive role is as a regulator for your workplace wellbeing. With the goal of preventing workplace accidents, injuries, and deaths. 

The HSE does charge for some of its services, such as if you’re not up to its regulatory standards. 

That means it’s really important to maintain high standards of health & safety at all times. 

And we can help you with that—get in touch and we’ll talk you through the procedures and policies you need: 0800 470 2432.

Health & Safety FAQs

What are employers’ duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974?

Employers must protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and others affected by their work “so far as is reasonably practicable,” including assessing risks, planning/controlling preventive measures, providing information and training, and consulting workers.

Do I need a written health and safety policy if I employ fewer than five people?

You must have a policy, but you only need it in writing if you employ 5 or more people; with fewer than five, it doesn’t have to be written (though it’s good practice to do so).

What are the consequences of failing to comply with health & safety laws?

HSE and local authorities can issue improvement and prohibition notices, and breaches can lead to prosecution with unlimited fines and, for individuals in some cases, imprisonment (typically up to 2 years). Sentencing follows national guidelines, and recent amendments can increase fines for very large organisations; fire-safety breaches specifically also carry unlimited fines and potential prison terms.

Do SMEs legally need a health & safety policy?

Yes. All employers must have a health and safety policy; only the written form depends on headcount (written if ≥5 employees).

How often must SMEs conduct risk assessments?

By law, risk assessments must be suitable and sufficient and reviewed regularly—update them when there are changes (people, processes, substances/equipment) or after incidents/near misses; many SMEs adopt an annual review as best practice.