What is an Health and Safety Policy?
A written Health and Safety Policy a useful document for all organisations and employers. A Health and Safety policy sets out your general approach to health and safety. It explains how you, as an employer, will manage health and safety in your business.
You should ensure that your employees have access to the Health and Safety policy, and any amendments to it.

Do we need a Health and Safety Policy?

It is a legal requirement for any Employer that has 5 or more employees to have a written Health and Safety Policy.

Your policy should cover three areas.
Statement of intent
This is a statement of your commitment to managing health and safety and your safety goals and targets as an employer. This should be signed by the Director responsible for Health and Safety, and reviewed regularly.
Organisation
This section details who in what job role has a specific responsibility for health and safety.
Arrangements for health and safety
The arrangements section should give details of the practical safety arrangements you have in place for each of the main health and safety issues, tasks and hazards that your employees are exposed to and how they will be kept safe.

A risk assessment is an important tool for health and safety management and its main objective is to determine the measures required to comply with Health and Safety legislation and law including the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and other associated regulations. Risk assessment is a specific requirement under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. A Risk Assessment considered what might cause harm (Hazards) and what is needed to avoid it and assesses the effectiveness of any control measures in place. Additional control measures can then be identified and put in place to reduce risks to as low as “reasonably practicable”.

Who carries out a Risk Assessment?

As an employer, you have a requirement by law to protect your employees, and others, from harm, and carry out suitable and sufficient Risk Assessment.

Is a risk assessment a requirement by law? 

Yes, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you are required to carry out suitable and sufficient Risk Assessment, this must be recorded if you have 5 or more employees.

How should a risk assessment be carried out? 

Assessing risk is just one part of the overall process used to control risks in your workplace.
For most small, low-risk businesses the steps you need to take are reasonably straightforward however it is advised that you get competent Health and Safety Advice.
Risk Assessment is a step-by-step process for controlling health and safety risks caused by hazards in the workplace.

The 5 steps to risk assessment are:

• Identify hazards
• Identify who could be harmed and how
• Assess the risks and identify suitable controls to reduce the risks to a suitable level
• Record your findings
• Review the risk assessment at suitable intervals or after any significant change