safety newsletter

Welcome to this month's safety newsletter. The idea of these newsletters is to raise safety awareness and to get you involved. This month’s topic is about

The health and safety law poster and leaflet

All companies must display the Health and Safety Executive HSE’s health and safety law poster if they employ anyone. Or they can give employees a leaflet called ‘Health and safety law: What you should know [65KB] [1]’ . The poster includes basic health and safety information and lets people know who is responsible for health and safety in your workplace. Employers must display the poster where workers can easily read it, and it must be in a readable condition. Companies must also include some contact details, for example of your local enforcing authority.

The Health and Safety Law Poster contains three sections that need to be completed. These are:

Employee Representative(s) This box is for a representative that has been appointed/elected by the employees, either under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee regulations 1977( if the work place has a trade union) or the Consultation with Employee Regulations 1996, (if there is no union represented). If there is no one who has been appointed/elected by the employees and the employer consults directly with the employees, then this box is left blank.

Management Representative This box is for the person appointed by the employer for health and safety, (i.e. health and safety officer). The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 7 states that "Every employer shall, appoint one of more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he need to take to comply with the requirements imposed upon him by the regulations". Ultimately this could be the employer themselves, depending on the size and structure of the business, and if the employer has the relevant training and experience.

Enforcing Authority The enforcing authority for health and safety depends on the type of business you conduct. In deciding who is your enforcing authority, a company needs to consider the type of workplace individuals are employed in. The HSE enforce over premises such as factories, building sites, mines, farms, fairgrounds, quarries, railways, chemical plant, offshore and nuclear installations, schools and hospitals. The Local Authority enforce over premises such as retailing, some warehouses, most offices, hotels and catering, sports, leisure, consumer services and places of worship. Details of your local authority can be found in your local telephone directory or we can provide the telephone number if you can tell us in which council area you are located. Employment Medical Advisory Service (EMAS) EMAS departments are located at local HSE offices, although there are some small area offices without one.

HSE’s myth of the month
Health and safety rules take the adventure out of playgrounds The reality: We're all for playgrounds being exciting and challenging places. Children should have fun in them, get fit, develop social skills and learn how to handle risks. What’s important is to strike the right balance - protecting children from harm while allowing them the freedom to develop independence and risk awareness. Exciting and challenging playgrounds do this, poorly maintained or badly designed ones don't. Health and safety laws don’t stop children having fun but ill-considered and overprotective actions do.

Related documents/ further reading:
‘Health and safety law: What you should know [65KB] [1]’
Download the poster at http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/mar09.pdf

www.she.ltd.uk