Health and safety is the prevention of persons being injured or harmed whilst at work or becoming ill whilst at work and ensuring that the working environment is safe and protects the wellbeing of your employees. It is the law!
Health and safety is very important for both you and your employees. Failure to comply with health and safety legislation can be prosecutable depending on the severity and seriousness of the offence. In addition, the likelihood of being taken to court for a work-based accident due to health and safety issues is increasing significantly.
Effective training is vital to the smooth running of any business. Health and Safety training is essential to ensure that everyone in your workplace is fully aware of their responsibilities under health and safety regulations whilst at work. Correct training should eventually benefit your total business expenditure as in reduction of accidents / incidents, number of days lost and insurance premiums. The benefit to your employees is a healthier and safer workplace.
Health and safety law is a set of rules, regulations and legislation that have been put in place by the Government which require us not to put ourselves, or others in danger whilst at work. Health and safety law is also there for the protection of the public from any workplace dangers.
Yes, health and safety laws apply to every business, whether large or small. The laws even apply to the self-employed as well as to all employees.
One of the major reasons for employing the services of a consultant is to provide a source of independent advice. The objectivity of an external consultant can provide new ideas, systems, equipment and working practices to compliment and enhance already established in-house skills.
An initial visit to carry out a health and safety audit to assess your needs may take a few hours, and then further visits can be discussed in more detail in order for us to tailor your requirements. It is not unusual to follow-up with regular ‘maintenance’ visits depending on how much work there is to be covered.
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or an Inspector via your local authority enforce health and safety laws. The HSE Inspectors are also known as Factory Inspectors, as they usually inspect factories, farms and building sites. Inspectors from your local authority are Environmental Health Officers (EHO) who usually inspect offices, shops, hotels, catering and leisure activities.
There are a number of ways in which to find out about health and safety, one of which is to contact your local authority, or contact us here to see how we can assist you.
An inspector’s main function is to ensure that you adhere to health and safety rules. Inspectors sometimes investigate accidents, or indeed complaints, but inspectors can also help businesses to understand what you need to do to abide by the law. Inspectors only enforce the law when something is seriously wrong but if they do, you will be charged the current HSE Fee For Intervention costs.
Yes. There are also people called Health and Safety Awareness Officers or HSAO, and they can visit your premises or business to provide you with any relevant information, guidance and advice. HSAOs are not factory inspectors, and as such will not give any technical advice or express an opinion on compliance with the law, but they will collect information about your business which will be used solely by the HSE in any further contact with you.
Yes. You should know which accidents, incidents and even ill-health cases to report, including who should report it, when it should be reported and how to report it. Remember, all employers, the self-employed and people in control of premises have duties under health and safety law. For further information on workplace accidents contact us and we’ll do our best to help you.
A health and safety policy is the documented health and safety arrangements within your business. For example, the effective planning, organisation, control, implementation, monitoring, auditing and reviewing of the protective and preventative measures. Now, if your business has 5 or more employees these arrangements must be fully recorded, however, even if there are less than 5 employees, you will need to show that these arrangements are still in place.
When all of your health and safety issues have been dealt with, and everything has been brought up-to-date, you will have a suitable and sufficient Health and Safety Management System. This will mean that you fulfil your legal obligation under health and safety law, and provided that relevant reviews and updates are undertaken on your system at regular scheduled intervals, both you and your company can rest assured that all of your legal requirements under current health and safety legislation are being met.
Contact Johnson Health & Safety here and we will be in touch within 48 hours!