2 minute read
Eff ective health and safety
Eff ective health and safety
Oliver Dale at Safety Revolution explains how members can keep their enterprises safe, and why an eff ective safety management system is important he management of health and
Tsafety in a private house, farm or estate where staff and/or contractors are employed is regulated under the Health and This means you must have a contractor discharged your duty of care to your staff , approval process in place (that is, a contractors and visitors. structured administration process with Please be aware that if you are the technical review of contractor documents owner or operator of a country house or by your competent person) that is actively a director or trustee, you cannot delegate Safety at Work Act 1974, and is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
This act is criminal law, and failure to comply with it can leave the owner or occupier of the property or their directors, trustees and executives open to enforcement action, including prosecution. Penalties include substantial fi nes and potentially custodial sentences.
Where the HSE does not deem enforcement action necessary, a party alleging that injury or loss has occurred on your property has recourse to seek recompense under civil law. The following examples are not an exhaustive list of the circumstances that could lead to a breach, although they are situations that typically arise: Where fi ve or more persons are employed – that threshold includes self-employed contractors, part-time and casual staff as well as full time staff – you are required to have a documented health and safety policy and risk assessment. These should be drafted by a competent person. In practice, that means someone with health and safety expertise and qualifi cations. All staff and contractors should have been fully inducted. This means that you have provided them with full information, including addressing the work they will complete. You should also have conducted a basic health assessment and recorded the issue of personal protective equipment. For larger contractors, you are obliged to have assessed their competence. Where staff live within the house or within ancillary buildings, these areas would be considered very high risk in relation to fi re – a documented and actively managed suitable and su cient fi re risk assessment is a statutory legalrequirement. All of these requirements should form part of an eff ective safety management system. That system forms the backbone of your body of evidence that you are required to maintain to prove that you have managed and maintained and which your responsibilities to a third party – you positively approves each contractor. are personally responsible for developing Where staff work alone, such as within the type of system required (or for the house, gardens or woodland, you instructing a competent person to do so) to must have documented systems in place comply with the law.Safety Revolution has to ensure that they are supervised, even teamed up with the CLA to off er members if that is remotely. Staff should sign off a full-service solution for all your health all documents containing information and safety requirements, with an exclusive and instruction. discount available. GET IN TOUCH
