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0 As an employer, you must use someone competent to help you meet your health and safety duties. It’s not essential for them to have formal qualifications and they’re not required by law to have formal training, although it can help. But whoever you choose should have the skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.
The competent person could be:
- you
- one or more of your workers
- someone from outside your business
or a combination of the above.
If someone within your workforce is competent, you should use them rather than someone from outside your business. Usually, managing health and safety isn’t complicated and you can do it yourself with the help of your workers. You know your workplace best and the risks associated with it.
Prepare a health and safety policy.
The law says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety.
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. It should clearly say who does what, when and how.
If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, but it is useful to do so.
You must share the policy, and any changes to it, with your employees.
