Health and Safety Policy

This health and safety policy sets out how health and safety issues are managed within an organisation. A health and safety policy is a commitment to planning and managing health and safety at work and is the key to achieving acceptable standards and preventing accidents and instances of work-related ill health.

Overall responsibility for health and safety rests with the employer but many day-to-day tasks may be delegated. The policy shows how these tasks are allocated and states exactly who is responsible for different things such as first aid, health and safety and fire risk assessments and investigating accidents.

By law:

• If you employ five or more people, you must have a written health and safety policy under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. For more information visit the Health and Safety Executive website.
• All employers and owners of non-domestic premises have to appoint someone who will be responsible for fire safety. The onus will be on that person to assess fire risks, take practical measures to identify, reduce and remove them and to record the fire risk assessment undertaken. Under these new rules, which came into force on 1 October 2006 under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended, premises will be subject to inspection by appointed enforcers to check compliance with the law. Fire certificates will no longer be issued and those previously in force will have no legal status. For more information visit the Fire Gateway and Scottish Fire Law websites.

This health and safety policy is suitable for use in England, Wales and Scotland and includes the following clauses:

• policy statement
• employer's responsibilities
• employee's responsibilities
• roles
• risk assessments
• safe plant and equipment
• hazardous substances
• training
• reporting
• accidents and first aid
• emergency procedures
• consultation
• information.

This document is available individually or as part of an Employment Annual Subscription, Business Annual Subscription or Full Annual Subscription - giving you access to wide range of documents, packages and forms for a single annual fee.

You can view a sample document here.

The price of this document is £11.28 (Word Document) or £16.92 (Word Template) including VAT.

How to order

Choose the format of your Health and Safety Policy: Word Document (.doc) or Word Template (.dot) 

More information

• Health and Safety Overview - general health and safety obligations affecting businesses