Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland
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Monitor agency workers' health and safety
In this guide:
- Agency workers' health and safety
- Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
- Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
- Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
- Agency workers and health and safety information and training
- Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
- Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
User businesses and agencies share responsibility for agency workers' health and safety, duties depend on who the employer is and what the contract states.
When a business uses agency workers, the business and the agency have a shared duty to protect the health and safety of the agency workers.
Some health and safety duties depend on whether you are the employer. This is determined by the circumstances of each individual case. You should be aware that agency workers could be considered your employees for health and safety purposes even if they are not for the purposes of tax and National Insurance.
Agency workers might be employees of the agency, or employees of the business using them (in both cases, under a contract of employment), or (occasionally) self-employed/freelance. If you are the employer, you cannot transfer your health and safety responsibilities to another person or business.
It's vital for both the user business and the agency to agree at the start of a contract the practical arrangements for:
- day-to-day supervision
- direction and control of the work that agency workers will be doing
The Health and Safety Executive provide guidance on .
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Source URL
/content/who-responsible-agency-workers-health-and-safety
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Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
Employers and agencies must include agency workers in risk assessments and both have certain responsibilities for carrying these risk assessments out.
By law, businesses must ensure that they assess health and safety risks.
Businesses using agency workers
If agency workers are on your site (either under your direct employ or through another company), your assessment needs to take them into account. You should consider the special problems they may face. For example, they will know less about your business than ordinary employees, and so could be at greater risk.
Your health and safety risk assessment must take into account any special cases such as pregnant women, people who work alone or people who may not speak English as a first language.
You must also give the agency and agency workers information about risks and measures taken to control them before the start of the placement. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Employment agencies
If you provide agency workers to other businesses, you also have responsibilities. You should ensure the user business has carried out an assessment and given you the findings, which you should pass on to agency workers.
You may also need to assess the risks facing workers before you place workers with that business. If the user business doesn't provide the information you need, you might decide to make a site visit to complete your own risk assessment.
This is more likely if you are providing workers for higher-risk industries such as construction, or where the risks are complex. If you are not competent to do the assessment yourself, you must arrange for someone else to do it for you.
You should also monitor user businesses' overall health and safety performance. For example, you could ask for copies of all accident and illness reports involving your agency workers, including the causes and what preventative measures they have implemented.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this sitePrimary parentContent category
Source URL
/content/health-and-safety-risk-assessment-agency-workers
Links
Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
Shared responsibility for workers requires a co-ordinated approach to health and safety between the employment agency and the business using the workers.
Responsibility for agency workers' health and safety is often shared regardless of where contractual duties lie. The business using the workers, the employment agency and the workers themselves can all have responsibilities. Co-operation is essential.
Co-operate for agency workers' safety from the start
From the start, every interested party must share information. For example, if the user business wants workers for a particular role, they should tell the agency health and safety risks, and any qualifications or skills needed to carry out the work safely.
This will help the agency put forward people with the right training, qualifications and experience. The agency should tell the user business about workers' skills and qualifications, to help decide what additional training the workers may need.
Sharing information with the workers themselves is also vital. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Ongoing co-operation for agency workers' safety
Continuing co-operation throughout placements will help ensure that responsibilities are clear. It also allows everyone involved to co-ordinate health and safety activities such as giving information, instruction, training and supervision. Nobody should just assume that someone else is taking care of it. For clarity, responsibilities should be spelt out in contractual arrangements. Remember that your legal responsibility as an employer cannot be passed on.
It's a good idea to regularly review the effectiveness of your arrangements. For example, the end of a work placement is a natural time to do this. You should try to identify any problems, and discuss the reasons for them. This will help you take steps to improve health and safety for the future.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/co-operate-protect-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Agency workers and health and safety information and training
Communication and instruction is essential for agency workers' health and safety, it is vital workers have the right training to safely carry out their jobs.
Each new work placement poses health and safety risks. It's essential the business using the workers, the agency and the workers themselves share information to ensure health and safety is properly protected.
You should consider what health and safety information, instruction and training workers need (whether you are the user business or the agency). You should clarify who will provide it to meet the legal duties you both have under health and safety legislation.
User businesses have a duty to give proper instructions and clear information, both to the workers and the agency.
You should provide information about:
- risks agency workers may face when working in your business
- any special occupational skills or qualifications required
- health surveillance requirements
Agencies have the same duties if the workers are their employees. Additionally, the user business should tell the agency about any special features of the job that may affect agency workers' health and safety. The agency must pass this information on to the workers.
You should check that workers have understood training once it's been given and are continuing to follow procedures correctly.
Consulting with your workforce about safety
Consultation with your workforce is key to improving health and safety. Workers are more likely to work in a safe and healthy way if they have been involved in decisions about how risks at work are controlled.
Whether you are a business using agency workers or an agency, you are legally obliged to consult workers about health and safety if they are your employees.
It is good practice to consult workers who may not be your employees where the placement is long term. This should not in itself be seen as implying contractual obligations. Agency workers have the right to equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks in a placement. See consult your employees on health and safety.
Even when agency workers are not legally your employees, it is good practice to consult and involve them. They need to feel 'part of the team'.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/agency-workers-and-health-and-safety-information-and-training
Links
Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
Equipment and procedures for protecting agency workers' health and safety including types of protective equipment and who is responsible for providing it.
Businesses using agency workers must ensure that the workers have the same level of health and safety protection as ordinary employees.
Types of protective equipment
If user businesses provide employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective clothing, agency workers should receive equivalent PPE if they are exposed to the same risks.
Agency workers who use computers and similar equipment with screens will need suitable workstations and rest breaks. Unless a worker is genuinely self-employed, both the user business and the agency have responsibilities. The employer is responsible for paying for eye and eyesight tests. See free eye tests for employees who use computers.
The more hazardous the work your business carries out, the more you need to do. There are specific requirements for certain work, including:
- chemicals
- the use of work equipment and machinery
- manual handling
- the use of electricity
- the comfort of the working environment
Who is responsible for proving PPE?
Legal responsibility for providing this free of charge lies with whoever is the worker's employer - this might be the agency or the user business. If you're not the employer, you may agree to provide what is necessary (whether you're a user business or an agency), but you cannot charge the worker for it.
In only a few cases, where workers are genuinely self-employed, will they be responsible for providing their own PPE. For more information, .
Businesses using agency workers and agencies themselves need to work together to ensure that the right equipment and facilities are provided and procedures are followed. See co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/provide-agency-workers-personal-protective-equipment
Links
Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Health checks can be an important part of meeting your health and safety responsibilities, businesses and agencies can use checks to protect agency workers.
Depending on your assessment of the risks, you may need to carry out health checks on employees (whether you are the user business or the agency). For example, you might need to do this if employees work with chemicals that can damage health. While health checks are not a substitute for controlling risks, they can help you tell whether your controls are working.
Businesses using agency workers
If you are the user business and you decide health checks are necessary, you may want to include agency workers even if they are not your employees. You should co-ordinate with the agency about this, and make sure that all parties are clear about who will provide it if it's required.
Don't forget that you need to give workers clear information about these health checks, too, whether they're your employees or those of the agency.
In some cases, you may decide that all that's needed is to check sickness records and reports of diseases. In other cases, you may need direct checks such as inspections for skin rashes.
Agencies supplying workers
If the agency workers you supply are your employees, you are responsible for any health checks needed.
Before placing workers with a user business, you need to check with the user business whether they will be doing work that requires health checks. If so, you'll need to get information from the user business about what's involved. You might be able to arrange for the user business to do the checks on your behalf - but you are still responsible for making sure they are done.
You may also need to organise some health checks yourself. For example, you might arrange annual medical check-ups for workers who are exposed to potentially serious health hazards, such as asbestos or radiation.
Agency workers can be injured or made ill at work. The user business and agency should clarify, before the placement, who is the 'responsible person' for any necessary RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) reports for agency workers. They should also ensure that all relevant information is exchanged so that RIDDOR forms can be completed in full. The responsible person should submit completed RIDDOR forms to the appropriate enforcing authority.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/monitor-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
In this guide:
- Agency workers' health and safety
- Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
- Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
- Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
- Agency workers and health and safety information and training
- Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
- Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
User businesses and agencies share responsibility for agency workers' health and safety, duties depend on who the employer is and what the contract states.
When a business uses agency workers, the business and the agency have a shared duty to protect the health and safety of the agency workers.
Some health and safety duties depend on whether you are the employer. This is determined by the circumstances of each individual case. You should be aware that agency workers could be considered your employees for health and safety purposes even if they are not for the purposes of tax and National Insurance.
Agency workers might be employees of the agency, or employees of the business using them (in both cases, under a contract of employment), or (occasionally) self-employed/freelance. If you are the employer, you cannot transfer your health and safety responsibilities to another person or business.
It's vital for both the user business and the agency to agree at the start of a contract the practical arrangements for:
- day-to-day supervision
- direction and control of the work that agency workers will be doing
The Health and Safety Executive provide guidance on .
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/who-responsible-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
Employers and agencies must include agency workers in risk assessments and both have certain responsibilities for carrying these risk assessments out.
By law, businesses must ensure that they assess health and safety risks.
Businesses using agency workers
If agency workers are on your site (either under your direct employ or through another company), your assessment needs to take them into account. You should consider the special problems they may face. For example, they will know less about your business than ordinary employees, and so could be at greater risk.
Your health and safety risk assessment must take into account any special cases such as pregnant women, people who work alone or people who may not speak English as a first language.
You must also give the agency and agency workers information about risks and measures taken to control them before the start of the placement. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Employment agencies
If you provide agency workers to other businesses, you also have responsibilities. You should ensure the user business has carried out an assessment and given you the findings, which you should pass on to agency workers.
You may also need to assess the risks facing workers before you place workers with that business. If the user business doesn't provide the information you need, you might decide to make a site visit to complete your own risk assessment.
This is more likely if you are providing workers for higher-risk industries such as construction, or where the risks are complex. If you are not competent to do the assessment yourself, you must arrange for someone else to do it for you.
You should also monitor user businesses' overall health and safety performance. For example, you could ask for copies of all accident and illness reports involving your agency workers, including the causes and what preventative measures they have implemented.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this sitePrimary parentContent category
Source URL
/content/health-and-safety-risk-assessment-agency-workers
Links
Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
Shared responsibility for workers requires a co-ordinated approach to health and safety between the employment agency and the business using the workers.
Responsibility for agency workers' health and safety is often shared regardless of where contractual duties lie. The business using the workers, the employment agency and the workers themselves can all have responsibilities. Co-operation is essential.
Co-operate for agency workers' safety from the start
From the start, every interested party must share information. For example, if the user business wants workers for a particular role, they should tell the agency health and safety risks, and any qualifications or skills needed to carry out the work safely.
This will help the agency put forward people with the right training, qualifications and experience. The agency should tell the user business about workers' skills and qualifications, to help decide what additional training the workers may need.
Sharing information with the workers themselves is also vital. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Ongoing co-operation for agency workers' safety
Continuing co-operation throughout placements will help ensure that responsibilities are clear. It also allows everyone involved to co-ordinate health and safety activities such as giving information, instruction, training and supervision. Nobody should just assume that someone else is taking care of it. For clarity, responsibilities should be spelt out in contractual arrangements. Remember that your legal responsibility as an employer cannot be passed on.
It's a good idea to regularly review the effectiveness of your arrangements. For example, the end of a work placement is a natural time to do this. You should try to identify any problems, and discuss the reasons for them. This will help you take steps to improve health and safety for the future.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/co-operate-protect-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Agency workers and health and safety information and training
Communication and instruction is essential for agency workers' health and safety, it is vital workers have the right training to safely carry out their jobs.
Each new work placement poses health and safety risks. It's essential the business using the workers, the agency and the workers themselves share information to ensure health and safety is properly protected.
You should consider what health and safety information, instruction and training workers need (whether you are the user business or the agency). You should clarify who will provide it to meet the legal duties you both have under health and safety legislation.
User businesses have a duty to give proper instructions and clear information, both to the workers and the agency.
You should provide information about:
- risks agency workers may face when working in your business
- any special occupational skills or qualifications required
- health surveillance requirements
Agencies have the same duties if the workers are their employees. Additionally, the user business should tell the agency about any special features of the job that may affect agency workers' health and safety. The agency must pass this information on to the workers.
You should check that workers have understood training once it's been given and are continuing to follow procedures correctly.
Consulting with your workforce about safety
Consultation with your workforce is key to improving health and safety. Workers are more likely to work in a safe and healthy way if they have been involved in decisions about how risks at work are controlled.
Whether you are a business using agency workers or an agency, you are legally obliged to consult workers about health and safety if they are your employees.
It is good practice to consult workers who may not be your employees where the placement is long term. This should not in itself be seen as implying contractual obligations. Agency workers have the right to equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks in a placement. See consult your employees on health and safety.
Even when agency workers are not legally your employees, it is good practice to consult and involve them. They need to feel 'part of the team'.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/agency-workers-and-health-and-safety-information-and-training
Links
Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
Equipment and procedures for protecting agency workers' health and safety including types of protective equipment and who is responsible for providing it.
Businesses using agency workers must ensure that the workers have the same level of health and safety protection as ordinary employees.
Types of protective equipment
If user businesses provide employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective clothing, agency workers should receive equivalent PPE if they are exposed to the same risks.
Agency workers who use computers and similar equipment with screens will need suitable workstations and rest breaks. Unless a worker is genuinely self-employed, both the user business and the agency have responsibilities. The employer is responsible for paying for eye and eyesight tests. See free eye tests for employees who use computers.
The more hazardous the work your business carries out, the more you need to do. There are specific requirements for certain work, including:
- chemicals
- the use of work equipment and machinery
- manual handling
- the use of electricity
- the comfort of the working environment
Who is responsible for proving PPE?
Legal responsibility for providing this free of charge lies with whoever is the worker's employer - this might be the agency or the user business. If you're not the employer, you may agree to provide what is necessary (whether you're a user business or an agency), but you cannot charge the worker for it.
In only a few cases, where workers are genuinely self-employed, will they be responsible for providing their own PPE. For more information, .
Businesses using agency workers and agencies themselves need to work together to ensure that the right equipment and facilities are provided and procedures are followed. See co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/provide-agency-workers-personal-protective-equipment
Links
Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Health checks can be an important part of meeting your health and safety responsibilities, businesses and agencies can use checks to protect agency workers.
Depending on your assessment of the risks, you may need to carry out health checks on employees (whether you are the user business or the agency). For example, you might need to do this if employees work with chemicals that can damage health. While health checks are not a substitute for controlling risks, they can help you tell whether your controls are working.
Businesses using agency workers
If you are the user business and you decide health checks are necessary, you may want to include agency workers even if they are not your employees. You should co-ordinate with the agency about this, and make sure that all parties are clear about who will provide it if it's required.
Don't forget that you need to give workers clear information about these health checks, too, whether they're your employees or those of the agency.
In some cases, you may decide that all that's needed is to check sickness records and reports of diseases. In other cases, you may need direct checks such as inspections for skin rashes.
Agencies supplying workers
If the agency workers you supply are your employees, you are responsible for any health checks needed.
Before placing workers with a user business, you need to check with the user business whether they will be doing work that requires health checks. If so, you'll need to get information from the user business about what's involved. You might be able to arrange for the user business to do the checks on your behalf - but you are still responsible for making sure they are done.
You may also need to organise some health checks yourself. For example, you might arrange annual medical check-ups for workers who are exposed to potentially serious health hazards, such as asbestos or radiation.
Agency workers can be injured or made ill at work. The user business and agency should clarify, before the placement, who is the 'responsible person' for any necessary RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) reports for agency workers. They should also ensure that all relevant information is exchanged so that RIDDOR forms can be completed in full. The responsible person should submit completed RIDDOR forms to the appropriate enforcing authority.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/monitor-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
In this guide:
- Agency workers' health and safety
- Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
- Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
- Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
- Agency workers and health and safety information and training
- Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
- Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
User businesses and agencies share responsibility for agency workers' health and safety, duties depend on who the employer is and what the contract states.
When a business uses agency workers, the business and the agency have a shared duty to protect the health and safety of the agency workers.
Some health and safety duties depend on whether you are the employer. This is determined by the circumstances of each individual case. You should be aware that agency workers could be considered your employees for health and safety purposes even if they are not for the purposes of tax and National Insurance.
Agency workers might be employees of the agency, or employees of the business using them (in both cases, under a contract of employment), or (occasionally) self-employed/freelance. If you are the employer, you cannot transfer your health and safety responsibilities to another person or business.
It's vital for both the user business and the agency to agree at the start of a contract the practical arrangements for:
- day-to-day supervision
- direction and control of the work that agency workers will be doing
The Health and Safety Executive provide guidance on .
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/who-responsible-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
Employers and agencies must include agency workers in risk assessments and both have certain responsibilities for carrying these risk assessments out.
By law, businesses must ensure that they assess health and safety risks.
Businesses using agency workers
If agency workers are on your site (either under your direct employ or through another company), your assessment needs to take them into account. You should consider the special problems they may face. For example, they will know less about your business than ordinary employees, and so could be at greater risk.
Your health and safety risk assessment must take into account any special cases such as pregnant women, people who work alone or people who may not speak English as a first language.
You must also give the agency and agency workers information about risks and measures taken to control them before the start of the placement. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Employment agencies
If you provide agency workers to other businesses, you also have responsibilities. You should ensure the user business has carried out an assessment and given you the findings, which you should pass on to agency workers.
You may also need to assess the risks facing workers before you place workers with that business. If the user business doesn't provide the information you need, you might decide to make a site visit to complete your own risk assessment.
This is more likely if you are providing workers for higher-risk industries such as construction, or where the risks are complex. If you are not competent to do the assessment yourself, you must arrange for someone else to do it for you.
You should also monitor user businesses' overall health and safety performance. For example, you could ask for copies of all accident and illness reports involving your agency workers, including the causes and what preventative measures they have implemented.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this sitePrimary parentContent category
Source URL
/content/health-and-safety-risk-assessment-agency-workers
Links
Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
Shared responsibility for workers requires a co-ordinated approach to health and safety between the employment agency and the business using the workers.
Responsibility for agency workers' health and safety is often shared regardless of where contractual duties lie. The business using the workers, the employment agency and the workers themselves can all have responsibilities. Co-operation is essential.
Co-operate for agency workers' safety from the start
From the start, every interested party must share information. For example, if the user business wants workers for a particular role, they should tell the agency health and safety risks, and any qualifications or skills needed to carry out the work safely.
This will help the agency put forward people with the right training, qualifications and experience. The agency should tell the user business about workers' skills and qualifications, to help decide what additional training the workers may need.
Sharing information with the workers themselves is also vital. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Ongoing co-operation for agency workers' safety
Continuing co-operation throughout placements will help ensure that responsibilities are clear. It also allows everyone involved to co-ordinate health and safety activities such as giving information, instruction, training and supervision. Nobody should just assume that someone else is taking care of it. For clarity, responsibilities should be spelt out in contractual arrangements. Remember that your legal responsibility as an employer cannot be passed on.
It's a good idea to regularly review the effectiveness of your arrangements. For example, the end of a work placement is a natural time to do this. You should try to identify any problems, and discuss the reasons for them. This will help you take steps to improve health and safety for the future.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/co-operate-protect-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Agency workers and health and safety information and training
Communication and instruction is essential for agency workers' health and safety, it is vital workers have the right training to safely carry out their jobs.
Each new work placement poses health and safety risks. It's essential the business using the workers, the agency and the workers themselves share information to ensure health and safety is properly protected.
You should consider what health and safety information, instruction and training workers need (whether you are the user business or the agency). You should clarify who will provide it to meet the legal duties you both have under health and safety legislation.
User businesses have a duty to give proper instructions and clear information, both to the workers and the agency.
You should provide information about:
- risks agency workers may face when working in your business
- any special occupational skills or qualifications required
- health surveillance requirements
Agencies have the same duties if the workers are their employees. Additionally, the user business should tell the agency about any special features of the job that may affect agency workers' health and safety. The agency must pass this information on to the workers.
You should check that workers have understood training once it's been given and are continuing to follow procedures correctly.
Consulting with your workforce about safety
Consultation with your workforce is key to improving health and safety. Workers are more likely to work in a safe and healthy way if they have been involved in decisions about how risks at work are controlled.
Whether you are a business using agency workers or an agency, you are legally obliged to consult workers about health and safety if they are your employees.
It is good practice to consult workers who may not be your employees where the placement is long term. This should not in itself be seen as implying contractual obligations. Agency workers have the right to equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks in a placement. See consult your employees on health and safety.
Even when agency workers are not legally your employees, it is good practice to consult and involve them. They need to feel 'part of the team'.
Developed withHelpAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/agency-workers-and-health-and-safety-information-and-training
Links
Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
Equipment and procedures for protecting agency workers' health and safety including types of protective equipment and who is responsible for providing it.
Businesses using agency workers must ensure that the workers have the same level of health and safety protection as ordinary employees.
Types of protective equipment
If user businesses provide employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective clothing, agency workers should receive equivalent PPE if they are exposed to the same risks.
Agency workers who use computers and similar equipment with screens will need suitable workstations and rest breaks. Unless a worker is genuinely self-employed, both the user business and the agency have responsibilities. The employer is responsible for paying for eye and eyesight tests. See free eye tests for employees who use computers.
The more hazardous the work your business carries out, the more you need to do. There are specific requirements for certain work, including:
- chemicals
- the use of work equipment and machinery
- manual handling
- the use of electricity
- the comfort of the working environment
Who is responsible for proving PPE?
Legal responsibility for providing this free of charge lies with whoever is the worker's employer - this might be the agency or the user business. If you're not the employer, you may agree to provide what is necessary (whether you're a user business or an agency), but you cannot charge the worker for it.
In only a few cases, where workers are genuinely self-employed, will they be responsible for providing their own PPE. For more information, .
Businesses using agency workers and agencies themselves need to work together to ensure that the right equipment and facilities are provided and procedures are followed. See co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/provide-agency-workers-personal-protective-equipment
Links
Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Health checks can be an important part of meeting your health and safety responsibilities, businesses and agencies can use checks to protect agency workers.
Depending on your assessment of the risks, you may need to carry out health checks on employees (whether you are the user business or the agency). For example, you might need to do this if employees work with chemicals that can damage health. While health checks are not a substitute for controlling risks, they can help you tell whether your controls are working.
Businesses using agency workers
If you are the user business and you decide health checks are necessary, you may want to include agency workers even if they are not your employees. You should co-ordinate with the agency about this, and make sure that all parties are clear about who will provide it if it's required.
Don't forget that you need to give workers clear information about these health checks, too, whether they're your employees or those of the agency.
In some cases, you may decide that all that's needed is to check sickness records and reports of diseases. In other cases, you may need direct checks such as inspections for skin rashes.
Agencies supplying workers
If the agency workers you supply are your employees, you are responsible for any health checks needed.
Before placing workers with a user business, you need to check with the user business whether they will be doing work that requires health checks. If so, you'll need to get information from the user business about what's involved. You might be able to arrange for the user business to do the checks on your behalf - but you are still responsible for making sure they are done.
You may also need to organise some health checks yourself. For example, you might arrange annual medical check-ups for workers who are exposed to potentially serious health hazards, such as asbestos or radiation.
Agency workers can be injured or made ill at work. The user business and agency should clarify, before the placement, who is the 'responsible person' for any necessary RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) reports for agency workers. They should also ensure that all relevant information is exchanged so that RIDDOR forms can be completed in full. The responsible person should submit completed RIDDOR forms to the appropriate enforcing authority.
Developed withHelpActionsAlso on this siteContent category
Source URL
/content/monitor-agency-workers-health-and-safety
Links
Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
In this guide:
- Agency workers' health and safety
- Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
- Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
- Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
- Agency workers and health and safety information and training
- Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
- Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Who is responsible for agency workers' health and safety?
User businesses and agencies share responsibility for agency workers' health and safety, duties depend on who the employer is and what the contract states.
When a business uses agency workers, the business and the agency have a shared duty to protect the health and safety of the agency workers.
Some health and safety duties depend on whether you are the employer. This is determined by the circumstances of each individual case. You should be aware that agency workers could be considered your employees for health and safety purposes even if they are not for the purposes of tax and National Insurance.
Agency workers might be employees of the agency, or employees of the business using them (in both cases, under a contract of employment), or (occasionally) self-employed/freelance. If you are the employer, you cannot transfer your health and safety responsibilities to another person or business.
It's vital for both the user business and the agency to agree at the start of a contract the practical arrangements for:
- day-to-day supervision
- direction and control of the work that agency workers will be doing
The Health and Safety Executive provide guidance on .
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Health and safety risk assessment for agency workers
Employers and agencies must include agency workers in risk assessments and both have certain responsibilities for carrying these risk assessments out.
By law, businesses must ensure that they assess health and safety risks.
Businesses using agency workers
If agency workers are on your site (either under your direct employ or through another company), your assessment needs to take them into account. You should consider the special problems they may face. For example, they will know less about your business than ordinary employees, and so could be at greater risk.
Your health and safety risk assessment must take into account any special cases such as pregnant women, people who work alone or people who may not speak English as a first language.
You must also give the agency and agency workers information about risks and measures taken to control them before the start of the placement. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Employment agencies
If you provide agency workers to other businesses, you also have responsibilities. You should ensure the user business has carried out an assessment and given you the findings, which you should pass on to agency workers.
You may also need to assess the risks facing workers before you place workers with that business. If the user business doesn't provide the information you need, you might decide to make a site visit to complete your own risk assessment.
This is more likely if you are providing workers for higher-risk industries such as construction, or where the risks are complex. If you are not competent to do the assessment yourself, you must arrange for someone else to do it for you.
You should also monitor user businesses' overall health and safety performance. For example, you could ask for copies of all accident and illness reports involving your agency workers, including the causes and what preventative measures they have implemented.
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Co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety
Shared responsibility for workers requires a co-ordinated approach to health and safety between the employment agency and the business using the workers.
Responsibility for agency workers' health and safety is often shared regardless of where contractual duties lie. The business using the workers, the employment agency and the workers themselves can all have responsibilities. Co-operation is essential.
Co-operate for agency workers' safety from the start
From the start, every interested party must share information. For example, if the user business wants workers for a particular role, they should tell the agency health and safety risks, and any qualifications or skills needed to carry out the work safely.
This will help the agency put forward people with the right training, qualifications and experience. The agency should tell the user business about workers' skills and qualifications, to help decide what additional training the workers may need.
Sharing information with the workers themselves is also vital. See agency workers and health and safety information and training.
Ongoing co-operation for agency workers' safety
Continuing co-operation throughout placements will help ensure that responsibilities are clear. It also allows everyone involved to co-ordinate health and safety activities such as giving information, instruction, training and supervision. Nobody should just assume that someone else is taking care of it. For clarity, responsibilities should be spelt out in contractual arrangements. Remember that your legal responsibility as an employer cannot be passed on.
It's a good idea to regularly review the effectiveness of your arrangements. For example, the end of a work placement is a natural time to do this. You should try to identify any problems, and discuss the reasons for them. This will help you take steps to improve health and safety for the future.
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Agency workers and health and safety information and training
Communication and instruction is essential for agency workers' health and safety, it is vital workers have the right training to safely carry out their jobs.
Each new work placement poses health and safety risks. It's essential the business using the workers, the agency and the workers themselves share information to ensure health and safety is properly protected.
You should consider what health and safety information, instruction and training workers need (whether you are the user business or the agency). You should clarify who will provide it to meet the legal duties you both have under health and safety legislation.
User businesses have a duty to give proper instructions and clear information, both to the workers and the agency.
You should provide information about:
- risks agency workers may face when working in your business
- any special occupational skills or qualifications required
- health surveillance requirements
Agencies have the same duties if the workers are their employees. Additionally, the user business should tell the agency about any special features of the job that may affect agency workers' health and safety. The agency must pass this information on to the workers.
You should check that workers have understood training once it's been given and are continuing to follow procedures correctly.
Consulting with your workforce about safety
Consultation with your workforce is key to improving health and safety. Workers are more likely to work in a safe and healthy way if they have been involved in decisions about how risks at work are controlled.
Whether you are a business using agency workers or an agency, you are legally obliged to consult workers about health and safety if they are your employees.
It is good practice to consult workers who may not be your employees where the placement is long term. This should not in itself be seen as implying contractual obligations. Agency workers have the right to equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks in a placement. See consult your employees on health and safety.
Even when agency workers are not legally your employees, it is good practice to consult and involve them. They need to feel 'part of the team'.
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Provide agency workers with personal protective equipment
Equipment and procedures for protecting agency workers' health and safety including types of protective equipment and who is responsible for providing it.
Businesses using agency workers must ensure that the workers have the same level of health and safety protection as ordinary employees.
Types of protective equipment
If user businesses provide employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective clothing, agency workers should receive equivalent PPE if they are exposed to the same risks.
Agency workers who use computers and similar equipment with screens will need suitable workstations and rest breaks. Unless a worker is genuinely self-employed, both the user business and the agency have responsibilities. The employer is responsible for paying for eye and eyesight tests. See free eye tests for employees who use computers.
The more hazardous the work your business carries out, the more you need to do. There are specific requirements for certain work, including:
- chemicals
- the use of work equipment and machinery
- manual handling
- the use of electricity
- the comfort of the working environment
Who is responsible for proving PPE?
Legal responsibility for providing this free of charge lies with whoever is the worker's employer - this might be the agency or the user business. If you're not the employer, you may agree to provide what is necessary (whether you're a user business or an agency), but you cannot charge the worker for it.
In only a few cases, where workers are genuinely self-employed, will they be responsible for providing their own PPE. For more information, .
Businesses using agency workers and agencies themselves need to work together to ensure that the right equipment and facilities are provided and procedures are followed. See co-operate to protect agency workers' health and safety.
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Monitor agency workers' health and safety
Health checks can be an important part of meeting your health and safety responsibilities, businesses and agencies can use checks to protect agency workers.
Depending on your assessment of the risks, you may need to carry out health checks on employees (whether you are the user business or the agency). For example, you might need to do this if employees work with chemicals that can damage health. While health checks are not a substitute for controlling risks, they can help you tell whether your controls are working.
Businesses using agency workers
If you are the user business and you decide health checks are necessary, you may want to include agency workers even if they are not your employees. You should co-ordinate with the agency about this, and make sure that all parties are clear about who will provide it if it's required.
Don't forget that you need to give workers clear information about these health checks, too, whether they're your employees or those of the agency.
In some cases, you may decide that all that's needed is to check sickness records and reports of diseases. In other cases, you may need direct checks such as inspections for skin rashes.
Agencies supplying workers
If the agency workers you supply are your employees, you are responsible for any health checks needed.
Before placing workers with a user business, you need to check with the user business whether they will be doing work that requires health checks. If so, you'll need to get information from the user business about what's involved. You might be able to arrange for the user business to do the checks on your behalf - but you are still responsible for making sure they are done.
You may also need to organise some health checks yourself. For example, you might arrange annual medical check-ups for workers who are exposed to potentially serious health hazards, such as asbestos or radiation.
Agency workers can be injured or made ill at work. The user business and agency should clarify, before the placement, who is the 'responsible person' for any necessary RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) reports for agency workers. They should also ensure that all relevant information is exchanged so that RIDDOR forms can be completed in full. The responsible person should submit completed RIDDOR forms to the appropriate enforcing authority.
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The arrangements section of your health and safety policy
In this guide:
- Write a health and safety policy for your business
- What should be in your health and safety policy?
- The statement of general health and safety policy
- The responsibilities section of your health and safety policy
- The arrangements section of your health and safety policy
- Implementing your health and safety policy
What should be in your health and safety policy?
The information you need to set out in your health and safety policy including the statement of general policy, responsibilities and arrangement sections.
Your business must have a health and safety policy. If you have five or more employees, you must have a written policy.
Most businesses set out their policy in three parts:
- the statement of general policy section sets out your commitment to managing health and safety effectively, and what you want to achieve
- the responsibility section states who is responsible for what
- the arrangements section contains the detail of what you are going to do in practice to achieve the aims set out in your statement of general policy
Help to write a health and safety policy
You may find that there are some areas of health and safety policy that you need help with. You may be able to get help from Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) or the environmental health department of your local authority. If the issues are complicated, you may need to seek external advice
HSENI provide the following downloads to help you create your policy:
Environmental policy
You may want to consider environmental issues at the same time as considering your health and safety policy. If you have an environmental management system, your environmental policy should be a part of this. For further information see set up an environmental management system (EMS).
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The statement of general health and safety policy
What you should include in your statement of intent in your written health and safety policy including who is responsible for health and safety duties.
The statement of general policy sets out your general approach, objectives and the arrangements for managing health and safety in your business. It is a unique document that says who does what, when and how. There are no set rules on what you should include in your statement, but it is often only one page long. You must sign and date the statement.
What to include the statement of general policy
Most statements of general policy will state:
- your commitment to keeping your employees, customers and anyone else affected by your business' activities safe
- who has ultimate responsibility for health and safety in the business
- which staff have specific responsibilities - including the name or job title of the person in charge of health and safety
- your commitment to engaging and consulting with employees on day-to-day health and safety conditions and provide advice and supervision on occupational health
- that you understand the legal duties you have to provide a safe working environment, safe work equipment and safe methods of work
- what organisation and arrangements will be made to 91Ï㽶»ÆÉ«ÊÓƵ the policy
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The responsibilities section of your health and safety policy
Deciding who will carry out risk assessments, inspections and ensure health and safety – this could be you, an employee or someone external.
The responsibilities section of your policy should clearly say who is responsible for what.
As an employer, you must appoint someone competent to help you meet your health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.
You could appoint (one or a combination of):
- yourself
- one or more of your workers
- someone from outside your business
You probably manage most aspects of your business yourself, or with the help of your staff. But if you are not confident of your ability to manage all health and safety in-house, you may need some external help or advice.
Deciding what help you need is very important. Unless you are clear about what you want, you probably won't get the help you need.
You should identify who will:
- conduct health and safety risk assessments
- make workplace inspections
- ensure safety when specific tasks or work activities are carried out, or in specific areas of the workplace
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The arrangements section of your health and safety policy
What you should include in the arrangements section of your health and safety policy including information on hazards and risk assessment.
The arrangements section of your health and safety policy should say how you will meet the commitments you have made in your statement of general policy. See the statement of general health and safety policy.
You should include information on what you are going to do to remove or reduce the risks of the hazards in your workplace.
A hazard is anything in your business that could cause harm to people. A risk is the chance - however large or small - that a hazard could cause harm.
Your health and safety risk assessment should have highlighted the areas that may be a risk and any measures you currently have in place.
The additional arrangements you will make to control the risks should be set out in the arrangements section of your policy. They could include:
- staff training
- using signs to highlight risks
- improved safety equipment such as guards or additional personal protective equipment including goggles, safety boots or high-visibility clothing
- replacing hazardous chemicals with less harmful alternatives
- improved lighting or anti-slip flooring
You should focus your attention on the activities that could affect the most people or cause serious harm.
The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) provide an to give you an idea of what to include when writing your own.
Environmental policy
If you are including environmental issues in your policy, you should consider areas such as:
- improving pollution controls
- minimising waste
- recycling
- water
- energy
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Implementing your health and safety policy
How to check your health and safety policy helps manage risks and prevents accidents through regular monitoring and consulting staff.
Your health and safety policy should be a practical guide to how you manage health and safety within your business.
Monitoring your health and safety policy
Ways to check your policy include:
- Where you have set out clear responsibilities for employees, you can check that they have actually carried them out to the required standard.
- You can monitor whether people are following any rules or safe methods set out in the arrangements.
- You can walk around the workplace and check for hazards. Hazards are a sign that you need to improve safety management.
- Records or registers may be included as part of the arrangements section of your policy. Check they are being used and what incidents or comments have been recorded. For example, it is good practice to record workplace safety inspections and training given to staff.
Involve your workers in your policy implementation
You have to consult all your workers on health and safety. You do this by listening and talking to them about:
- health and safety and the work they do
- how risks are controlled
- the best ways of providing information and training
Consultation is a two-way process. Allow staff to raise concerns and influence decisions on the management of health and safety. Your employees are often the best people to understand risks in the workplace. Involving them in making decisions shows them that you take their health and safety seriously.
In a very small business, you might choose to consult your employees directly. Alternatively, you might consult your employees through a health and safety representative. This can be someone who has been chosen by their colleagues or selected by a trade union. As an employer, you cannot decide who will be the representative.
Some of the ways that you can bring the policy statement to your employees' attention are by:
- including it in any employee handbooks
- providing it at induction
- including a copy with the contract of employment
- posting it on your intranet sites
- posting it on notice boards
- making the duties in the policy part of your employees' workplace objectives
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What is corporate manslaughter?
What is corporate manslaughter?
What corporate manslaughter is and when your business can be prosecuted for this offence, involving a gross breach of duty of care by senior management.
Corporate manslaughter is a criminal offence where a business or organisation is found to have caused a person's death.
Your business can be prosecuted for the offence of corporate manslaughter if the way you manage activities causes a death through a gross breach of duty of care to the deceased. A large part of the breach must have been in the way senior management organised or managed the activities.
Owners and senior managers of businesses cannot personally be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter. However, they can be prosecuted for other offences related to failures in health and safety management. These include gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety offences. The corporate manslaughter law does not change this and individuals will be prosecuted where there is enough evidence and it is in the public interest.
Individual directors or members of staff could also be called as witnesses in a criminal trial for corporate manslaughter.
The corporate manslaughter test
Juries will consider how your business manages the activities that led to the fatal accident. This includes any systems and processes for managing health and safety, how these were operated in practice and the failures that occurred.
Most of the failure must have been caused by senior management, ie the people in your business who make the big decisions. This includes both centralised, headquarters functions as well as those in operational management roles.
To be in 'gross' breach of a duty of care, your business' actions must have fallen far below what could have been reasonably expected in the circumstances. Juries will also take into account any health and safety breaches by the organisation - and how serious they were.
Duty of care
Your business has duties of care that it should meet, for example:
- the systems of work and equipment used by employees
- the condition of worksites and other premises
- products or services supplied to customers
The corporate manslaughter legislation does not create new duties. The law is based on existing health and safety rules.
Complying with the legislation
All employers must already comply with health and safety legislation. The Corporate Manslaughter Act does not affect those requirements. However, the introduction of the criminal offence of corporate manslaughter should encourage you to manage health and safety properly.
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Prevent corporate manslaughter
Health and safety legislation imposes obligations on businesses, and failure to comply can lead to prosecution, health and safety must be managed effectively.
If you fail to manage health and safety effectively it can lead to prosecution for a number of different types of offence. It is not only a fatal accident that can lead to prosecution. You are more likely to be prosecuted for other types of offences than corporate manslaughter.
In addition to prosecution, people who are injured as a result of your business' negligence can sue for civil damages.
All employers must follow health and safety law, and if you fail to comply it can lead to action being taken against you. You are responsible for the health and safety of everyone affected by your business and its activities.
Your responsibilities
Specifically, you have a legal responsibility to:
- appoint a competent person for health and safety
- conduct a health and safety risk assessment
- have a health and safety policy in place - if you have five or more employees, this must be in writing
- consult your employees on health and safety
- record and report accidents - see first aid, accidents and illness in the workplace
- provide health and safety training
- take out employer's liability insurance
See health and safety basics for business.
You may need to register your business with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) or with your local council's environmental health department.
You also have general responsibilities that you should be aware of. These include basic requirements for appropriate ventilation, heating, lighting, workstations, seating and welfare facilities. See workplace welfare facilities and healthy work environment.
In some cases, your industry may have its own specific requirements for keeping your workers safe. Obligations range from providing appropriate protective clothing and equipment through to assessing the risks from hazardous substances, such as asbestos and lead, and taking appropriate precautions.
Manage health and safety effectively
You have a duty of care to ensure that no one is harmed by the activities that your business carries out. Meeting this requirement should involve a comprehensive approach to risk management that is led from the top of your business. If you do not put health and safety at the core of your decision-making you can face major problems. This could lead to incidents that result in both prosecutions and civil action.
Having a board member with specific responsibility for health and safety shows employees that you consider proper health and safety management is important. You should regularly consult your employees on health and safety.
One way to properly manage safety risks in your business is to set up a health and safety management system.
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Corporate manslaughter prosecutions and penalties
Who is responsible for investigating corporate manslaughter offences and the penalties that may follow prosecution such as unlimited fine or remedial order.
If your business doesn't meet its obligations, either the business or individual managers and workers can be prosecuted. This could lead to heavy fines, imprisonment and the disqualification of directors. Where a gross failure to fulfil health and safety obligations leads to someone's death, the business itself could face a charge of corporate manslaughter.
Individual managers and workers could face a charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
You must report most serious incidents in the workplace. All work-related deaths should be reported to the police and to the relevant regulator, eg the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland or local council.Corporate manslaughter investigations
The police will first investigate to see whether a serious criminal offence such as murder or manslaughter has been committed. They will work with the relevant regulators as appropriate. If the police find no evidence of such a serious criminal offence, the investigation is passed over to the relevant regulator.
Cases of corporate manslaughter are likely to be rare because the new offence is intended to cover only the worst cases of failure across a business to manage health and safety properly.
Corporate manslaughter prosecutions
In Northern Ireland, the consent of the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions is needed before a case of corporate manslaughter can be taken to court.
Whether or not a prosecution for corporate manslaughter is brought, other health and safety charges may be taken at the same time. Individual directors, managers or owners may also be prosecuted separately for manslaughter or health and safety offences where there is sufficient evidence.
Corporate manslaughter penalties
Businesses found guilty of corporate manslaughter are liable to an unlimited fine. Courts may also require a business to take steps to address the failures behind the death (a remedial order).
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Corporate manslaughter prosecutions and penalties
What is corporate manslaughter?
What corporate manslaughter is and when your business can be prosecuted for this offence, involving a gross breach of duty of care by senior management.
Corporate manslaughter is a criminal offence where a business or organisation is found to have caused a person's death.
Your business can be prosecuted for the offence of corporate manslaughter if the way you manage activities causes a death through a gross breach of duty of care to the deceased. A large part of the breach must have been in the way senior management organised or managed the activities.
Owners and senior managers of businesses cannot personally be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter. However, they can be prosecuted for other offences related to failures in health and safety management. These include gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety offences. The corporate manslaughter law does not change this and individuals will be prosecuted where there is enough evidence and it is in the public interest.
Individual directors or members of staff could also be called as witnesses in a criminal trial for corporate manslaughter.
The corporate manslaughter test
Juries will consider how your business manages the activities that led to the fatal accident. This includes any systems and processes for managing health and safety, how these were operated in practice and the failures that occurred.
Most of the failure must have been caused by senior management, ie the people in your business who make the big decisions. This includes both centralised, headquarters functions as well as those in operational management roles.
To be in 'gross' breach of a duty of care, your business' actions must have fallen far below what could have been reasonably expected in the circumstances. Juries will also take into account any health and safety breaches by the organisation - and how serious they were.
Duty of care
Your business has duties of care that it should meet, for example:
- the systems of work and equipment used by employees
- the condition of worksites and other premises
- products or services supplied to customers
The corporate manslaughter legislation does not create new duties. The law is based on existing health and safety rules.
Complying with the legislation
All employers must already comply with health and safety legislation. The Corporate Manslaughter Act does not affect those requirements. However, the introduction of the criminal offence of corporate manslaughter should encourage you to manage health and safety properly.
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Prevent corporate manslaughter
Health and safety legislation imposes obligations on businesses, and failure to comply can lead to prosecution, health and safety must be managed effectively.
If you fail to manage health and safety effectively it can lead to prosecution for a number of different types of offence. It is not only a fatal accident that can lead to prosecution. You are more likely to be prosecuted for other types of offences than corporate manslaughter.
In addition to prosecution, people who are injured as a result of your business' negligence can sue for civil damages.
All employers must follow health and safety law, and if you fail to comply it can lead to action being taken against you. You are responsible for the health and safety of everyone affected by your business and its activities.
Your responsibilities
Specifically, you have a legal responsibility to:
- appoint a competent person for health and safety
- conduct a health and safety risk assessment
- have a health and safety policy in place - if you have five or more employees, this must be in writing
- consult your employees on health and safety
- record and report accidents - see first aid, accidents and illness in the workplace
- provide health and safety training
- take out employer's liability insurance
See health and safety basics for business.
You may need to register your business with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) or with your local council's environmental health department.
You also have general responsibilities that you should be aware of. These include basic requirements for appropriate ventilation, heating, lighting, workstations, seating and welfare facilities. See workplace welfare facilities and healthy work environment.
In some cases, your industry may have its own specific requirements for keeping your workers safe. Obligations range from providing appropriate protective clothing and equipment through to assessing the risks from hazardous substances, such as asbestos and lead, and taking appropriate precautions.
Manage health and safety effectively
You have a duty of care to ensure that no one is harmed by the activities that your business carries out. Meeting this requirement should involve a comprehensive approach to risk management that is led from the top of your business. If you do not put health and safety at the core of your decision-making you can face major problems. This could lead to incidents that result in both prosecutions and civil action.
Having a board member with specific responsibility for health and safety shows employees that you consider proper health and safety management is important. You should regularly consult your employees on health and safety.
One way to properly manage safety risks in your business is to set up a health and safety management system.
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/content/prevent-corporate-manslaughter
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Corporate manslaughter prosecutions and penalties
Who is responsible for investigating corporate manslaughter offences and the penalties that may follow prosecution such as unlimited fine or remedial order.
If your business doesn't meet its obligations, either the business or individual managers and workers can be prosecuted. This could lead to heavy fines, imprisonment and the disqualification of directors. Where a gross failure to fulfil health and safety obligations leads to someone's death, the business itself could face a charge of corporate manslaughter.
Individual managers and workers could face a charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
You must report most serious incidents in the workplace. All work-related deaths should be reported to the police and to the relevant regulator, eg the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland or local council.Corporate manslaughter investigations
The police will first investigate to see whether a serious criminal offence such as murder or manslaughter has been committed. They will work with the relevant regulators as appropriate. If the police find no evidence of such a serious criminal offence, the investigation is passed over to the relevant regulator.
Cases of corporate manslaughter are likely to be rare because the new offence is intended to cover only the worst cases of failure across a business to manage health and safety properly.
Corporate manslaughter prosecutions
In Northern Ireland, the consent of the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions is needed before a case of corporate manslaughter can be taken to court.
Whether or not a prosecution for corporate manslaughter is brought, other health and safety charges may be taken at the same time. Individual directors, managers or owners may also be prosecuted separately for manslaughter or health and safety offences where there is sufficient evidence.
Corporate manslaughter penalties
Businesses found guilty of corporate manslaughter are liable to an unlimited fine. Courts may also require a business to take steps to address the failures behind the death (a remedial order).
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Reduce the risks of remote working
In this guide:
- Ensure lone workers' safety
- What is a lone worker?
- Your legal responsibilities for lone workers' safety
- Health and safety responsibilities of lone workers
- Carry out a risk assessment for lone workers
- Lone working risk assessment checklist
- Security for lone workers
- Safety and lone workers who deal with the public
- Safety of lone workers working from home
- Reduce the risks of remote working
- Monitor lone workers' health and safety
What is a lone worker?
Many employees and self-employed people are lone workers - at least part of the time, here are definitions the types of a lone worker, and some examples.
A lone worker is anyone who works alone. Lone workers can include:
- Self-employed people.
- Employees who work away from their business' base. This occurs in a wide range of business activities such as transport, painting and decorating and electrical and other repair work.
- People working outside normal hours - such as factory security staff or a night cleaner in an office block.
- Mobile workers who may be on their own for long periods of their working day, eg sales people.
- People who work from home.
Small businesses often use lone workers. For example, a shop might be staffed by just one worker at any given time.
Employed lone workers
If you employ lone workers, you have the same responsibilities for their health and safety as for any other employees. You may, however, need to take extra precautions to ensure that lone workers are at no greater risk than your other employees. See your legal responsibilities for lone workers health and safety.
Self-employed lone workers
If you're self-employed you have a duty to protect your own health and safety. If you're self-employed and you work alone, you must identify and minimise any risks that working alone involves.
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Your legal responsibilities for lone workers' safety
It is your legal responsibility to ensure that lone workers are at no greater risk than other employees, make sure you take action to assess and minimise risks.
You have the same health and safety responsibilities for lone workers as you do for other people who work for you.
Your first step should be to carry out a health and safety risk assessment. This highlights areas where further action may be needed to remove or minimise the chance of incidents occurring. See carry out a risk assessment for lone workers.
Risks to lone workers
Lone workers may be affected by many of the same health and safety risks as other workers. However, there are potential risks which are more likely to affect lone workers. It's important to:
- Ensure lone workers have no medical conditions which may make them unsuitable for the lone-working role they have been assigned.
- Be aware that some tasks may be too difficult or dangerous to be carried out by an unaccompanied worker.
- Provide some level of supervision, such as regular visits. See monitor lone workers' health and safety.
- Put contact procedures in place for emergencies so that the alarm can be raised and prompt medical attention provided if there is an accident.
- Make provision for lone workers - from fast-food delivery drivers to security personnel - who may be faced with a risk of violence.
- Check whether there are specific legal requirements. In some high-risk occupations such as diving, lone working is not allowed.
As with other workers, you must involving lone workers.
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Health and safety responsibilities of lone workers
Whilst the employers have certain health and safety duties to protect Lone workers, they are also responsible for ensuring their own health and safety.
As an employer it is your duty to protect the health and safety of lone workers.
However, lone workers - including self-employed ones - also have a responsibility to:
- take reasonable care to look after their own health and safety
- safeguard the health and safety of other people affected by their work
- co-operate with their employer's health and safety procedures
- use tools and other equipment properly, according to relevant safety instructions and any training they have been given
- not misuse equipment provided for their health and safety
It's also crucial that lone workers . This information can help you conduct your health and safety risk assessment.
Bear in mind that if you are self-employed and you engage a lone worker, you have health and safety responsibilities towards that person. They will have the various responsibilities listed above.
Security responsibilities
If one of your workers works remotely they still have the same responsibilities for information security. They must still:
- back up their information
- keep backups safe
- ensure that equipment and software is up to date
- make sure people cannot read, overhear or steal their information
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Carry out a risk assessment for lone workers
Minimising health and safety risks means taking account of the special circumstances of lone workers, it is important to carry out a safety risk assessment.
Your health and safety risk assessment should cover all potential risks and hazards in your business. This covers risks faced by everyone who is in contact with your business, including you, your employees, contractors, clients, suppliers and other visitors to your workplace. It also includes the families of people who work for you from home.
Particular risks to lone workers
The risks faced by lone workers can differ from those faced by others. Use lone working risk assessment checklist.
The actions you take as a result of the risk assessment may also need to be different for lone workers. For example, lone workers cannot easily ask more experienced colleagues for help with dangerous tasks or equipment, so extra training may be required.
Your general emergency procedures may not be enough to protect the health and safety of lone workers. For instance, getting first-aid treatment may be more difficult for an injured lone worker working off-site than for on-site workers.
Contact procedures
Contact procedures are crucial. How will you enable a lone worker to stay in touch with colleagues or with back-up in case of security risks? For example, what procedures would be followed if there was a break-in while only one night guard was on duty? See security for lone workers .
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Lone working risk assessment checklist
Examples of the special risks lone workers may face and how these may apply to different individuals to help you carry out a lone working risk assessment.
Your lone working risk assessment should consider a wide range of factors that may endanger a lone worker's health and safety. This may include risks relating to equipment, stress and violence.
This lone working risk assessment checklist highlights examples of risks you should take into account.
Make sure you:
- Assess whether the risks of the job can be controlled by someone working on their own.
- Check whether there is any specific legal requirement to have more than one worker for certain activities - eg diving operations may require both a supervisor and a rescue diver.
- Find out whether proper training has been provided.
- Consider whether the workplace presents special risks for someone on their own. For instance, someone working with a ladder might need another person to stabilise it.
- Take into account whether the work involves handling dangerous equipment or substances that require supervision.
- Consider whether the work is particularly stressful. See how to deal with stress.
- Consider whether there is a risk of violence.
- Assess whether the lone worker is medically fit to work alone.
- Consider whether certain groups of people face particular risks - such as trainees, young, pregnant or disabled workers.
- Make arrangements for lone workers whose first language is not English, to ensure clear communication, especially in an emergency.
- Make contingency plans in case the worker falls ill or has an accident, or there is an emergency such as a fire or hazardous spillage.
- Arrange proper supervision and monitoring for lone workers. See monitor lone workers' health and safety.
It is recommended that employers review risk assessments at least annually, or when there has been a significant change in working practice.
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Security for lone workers
Your security procedures must cover the extra risks lone workers face from accidents or violence at work to help you carry out a loner worker risk assessment.
People working alone may face greater security risks than other workers. If there is an accident, there may be nobody to help them. They may also run an increased risk of violence. .
If you allow people to work remotely - eg outside of the office or at home - you will probably come across different security risks. For example, they are unlikely to be able to dispose of sensitive papers securely, or have lockable filing cabinets or safes. As a result, you will need to adapt your procedures to accommodate this. See safety of lone workers working from home.
Managing security risks
You should consider the security of lone workers when conducting your health and safety risk assessment. A crucial point to establish is how people working on their own will be able to stay in contact with you or with a supervisor:
- For some lone workers - such as those working away from your main base - regular visits can be an important way of making sure that there are no problems.
- Regular communications via phone or radio enable you to keep in contact with lone workers. For some roles - such as a delivery driver - this kind of contact might be a normal part of the job.
- You could have an automatic warning system if the lone worker fails to check in on schedule. For instance, security personnel might be expected to check in with a central supervisor every hour.
- Emergency alarms fitted in your premises are another option. A lone worker could activate these in case of problems.
- There are software options available for remote workers' mobile devices that can help you keep track of their safety.
You may need to take extra precautions for the security of mobile lone workers. For example, you could put together a daily itinerary for each one so that other staff know where they might be.
If you are a self-employed lone worker, you must make your own security arrangements. For example, it can be a good idea to tell a friend whenever you are going out on a job.
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Safety and lone workers who deal with the public
Look for risks lone workers might present to members of the public - and risks the public might present to them, assess these risks and take action where needed.
You have responsibilities for the health and safety of anyone affected by your business' activities. This includes customers, suppliers, contractors and other visitors to your workplace.
You also have to consider any risks that lone workers might present - directly or indirectly - to other people.
Consider the following issues:
- Is the lone worker operating in an environment in which the work may create risks for others? Lone workers may work in environments which are less safe than your business premises. For example, a home is unlikely to have the same safety equipment as an office or factory.
- Does the lone worker have access to a first aid kit or do they have first aid training? This will help them deal with minor injuries either to themselves or to members of the public.
- Does the lone worker have a mobile phone or other means of communication to allow them to seek help in case of an emergency?
- Is a lone worker able to restrict public access and cordon off any dangerous areas if necessary?
- Are you aware of any possible health and safety considerations for a lone worker working in other business premises? It's important to consult the relevant owner or manager to identify what these are.
- Have you considered the safety of those lone workers who have a higher probability of encountering violence, eg those that work with the public or who work at night? If a violent incident does take place, you need to record it. Find information about .
If you or your workers deal with members of the public who may pose a threat, it might be a good idea to set up a system of identifying these people in your records. However, remember that data protection laws apply.
Read guidance on managing the .
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Safety of lone workers working from home
Risks in the home - such as poor lighting or equipment - may harm homeworkers, their families and others, assess these risks and take action where needed.
Don't assume that employees who work at home aren't at risk. As an employer, you have the same responsibility for the health and safety of people who work from home as for any of your other workers.
Ensuring premises and work practices are safe
In many cases, homes won't be as well-equipped as business premises that have been built specifically as work environments. For example, a lone worker's house may have poor lighting, ventilation and equipment, or its electrical wiring may be old and unreliable.
It can also be difficult to ensure that homeworkers work in a safe way. For example, it's difficult to check that regular breaks from working at a computer are being taken. Or that possible distractions such as telephones, radios and televisions are not increasing the risk of an accident occurring.
Protecting the health and safety of lone homeworkers
Your health and safety risk assessment must consider whether work being done at home might cause harm - either to homeworkers themselves or to other people. You may need to visit the homes in question, though you be able to find key potential hazard by using a thorough questionnaire.
Consider drawing up a homeworking policy which sets out key steps to be taken by people working at home to protect their health and safety.
You may also want to insist that certain safety standards are met before allowing people to work from home.
Homeworkers should check with their home insurance provider to ensure their policy covers working from home.
See use your home as a workplace and employees working from home.
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Reduce the risks of remote working
Advice on minimising the risks involved in working away from the office including examples of common remote working risks and how to reduce them.
Most of the security risks involved in working away from the office occur in the home or in transit. Travelling by bus or train can pose risks. You should ensure that all of your workers are aware of these risks and avoid:
- leaving equipment unattended in a public place or in a car
- displaying confidential or sensitive information on a laptop screen in a public place
- using public access to the internet - eg public Wi-Fi networks - when working on sensitive information
Make sure your workers are aware of precautions they can take. For example, where relevant your workers should:
- use hotel safes, either in rooms or at reception, to store valuable equipment and information when not in use
- install up to date virus protection software on devices
- back up data regularly and keep these backups safe and secure
- use a shredder - ideally a 'cross shredder' - to destroy sensitive papers they no longer need
- destroy CDs containing sensitive information they no longer need
- store valuable or sensitive papers, discs and CDs in a fireproof safe
- ensure that valuable equipment is locked away if they are not using it
- have their home checked by the local Crime Prevention Officer, who can also advise on how they can protect their work information
Insurance
If you are running a business from home, you should cover any valuable equipment with an insurance policy. General household insurance is unlikely to cover expensive business equipment. You may also need employers' liability insurance.
If your home is damaged and you are unable to work there for a period of time, it is unlikely that general household insurance will cover any loss of income. You should also be careful about taking office equipment such as laptops off site. Many policies will not be valid if equipment is damaged or lost outside of the insured premises.
Many insurance companies offer specific policies for home businesses at lower rates than standard business insurance.
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Monitor lone workers' health and safety
Regular supervision reduces the risks of lone working and flags up areas where there may be problems.
It is not possible to continuously supervise lone workers, but you can reduce health and safety risks by communicating with them regularly and monitoring their working conditions and practices.
As an employers, you must consult your workforce on health and safety matters. It is important to talk to employees, as they are a valuable source of information and advice. Effective consultation will also help you spot hazards and take measures to reduce the risks.
There are various steps you can take depending on the type of work being carried out and the type of premises being used. You could:
- Make regular visits to a lone worker. This is the best way of monitoring workplace hazards and safe working practices.
- Consider increased supervision where employees are new to a job, undergoing training, doing a job which presents special risks, or dealing with new situations.
- Set up a simple procedure for lone workers to report incidents such as accidents and near misses.
- Make sure lone workers know that they should take regular breaks and avoid working excessively long hours.
- Ask people working on their own if they feel there are any safety concerns that aren't being addressed.
- Encourage lone workers to seek help and advice if any safety concerns arise.
- Encourage lone homeworkers to visit your business premises every now and again. Face-to-face contact with colleagues might help them feel part of a team.
- Make sure that lone workers can keep in regular contact with you, especially those facing particular risks of accident or violence. See security for lone workers.
- Make sure you provide lone workers with any necessary training, instruction or demonstration.
- Keep confidential records - higher sickness rates or increased absenteeism levels may indicate potential problems.
Your aim is to ensure that lone workers aren't at greater risk than other workers. If this isn't possible, you should take action. You might decide a particular worker is not suited to lone working, or that an activity is too dangerous to be carried out by one person on their own.
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Review your health and safety risk assessment
In this guide:
- Health and safety risk assessment
- Assess the health and safety risks in your business
- Identify health and safety hazards
- Risk assessment: groups who are at risk
- Evaluate health and safety risks and decide on precautions
- Record your safety risk assessment findings and implement them
- Review your health and safety risk assessment
Assess the health and safety risks in your business
How you can assess the risks in your business and work to reduce them by carrying out a proper risk assessment that identifies and minimises safety hazards.
You must manage the health and safety risks in your workplace. To do this you need to decide whether you are doing enough to prevent harm. This is known as a risk assessment.
A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about taking sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. You are probably already taking steps to protect your employees, but your risk assessment will tell you whether you should be doing more.
How do I assess the risks in my workplace?
The following steps form part of your risk assessment:
- A good starting point is to walk around your workplace and look for any hazards. A hazard is anything that may cause harm.
- Then think about the risks. A risk is the chance, high or low, of somebody being harmed by the hazard, and how serious the harm could be.
- Think about how accidents could happen and who might be harmed. Ask your employees what they think the hazards are, as they may notice things that are not obvious to you and may have some good ideas on how to control the risks. Focus on the real risks - those that are most likely to cause harm.
- Consider the measures you are already taking to control the risks and ask if there is anything you should do to make your workplace safer.
- Once you have identified the risks and what you need to do to control them, you should put the appropriate measures into place.
- Then record your findings. If you have fewer than five employees you don't have to write anything down but it is good practice to keep a record. An easy way to record your findings is to download the .
- Take a look at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)'s selection of . They show you what a completed risk assessment might look like for your type of business. You can use these as a guide when doing your own.
- You can get more from HSE.
- Few workplaces stay the same and sooner or later you will bring in new equipment, substances or procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense to review your risk assessment on a regular basis. If anything significant changes, check your risk assessment and update it.
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Identify health and safety hazards
How to identify any potential causes of harm or injury in your workplace as part of a risk assessment by walking around, looking at records and talking to staff.
One of the most important aspects of your risk assessment is to accurately spot the potential hazards in your workplace.
When you work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, so here are some tips to help you find the ones that matter:
- Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm.
- Ask your employees or their representatives what they think. They may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you. See consult your employees on health and safety.
- Check manufacturers' instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in spelling out the hazards and putting them in their true perspective.
- Have a look back at your accident and ill-health records. These often help to identify the less obvious hazards.
- Remember to think about long-term hazards to health (eg high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances).
For some hazards there are particular control measures that are required by law. A few examples of activities with a recognised risk of harm are working at height, working with chemicals, machinery, and asbestos. Depending on the type of work you do there may be other risks that are relevant to your business.
The Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI) website has information on to help you decide what you need to do about different risks.
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Risk assessment: groups who are at risk
Identify which groups that could be harmed or injured as part of a workplace risk assessment, including groups who are at particular risk like young workers.
For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk. That doesn't mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people (eg 'people working in the storeroom' or 'passers-by').
Think about people who might not be in the workplace all the time, such as visitors, contractors and maintenance workers.
Take members of the public into account if they could be hurt by your work activities.
If you share a workplace with another business, you will need to consider how your work affects others and how their work affects you and your staff. Talk to each other and make sure controls are in place.
In each case, identify how they might be harmed, i.e. what type of injury or ill health might occur. For example, 'shelf stackers may suffer back injury from repeated lifting of boxes'.
Groups at particular risk
Remember - some workers may have specific needs and may be at particular risk. Find information on health and safety considerations for the following groups:
- (information available in a range of languages)
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Evaluate health and safety risks and decide on precautions
Assessing the risks at your place of work and developing systems to avoid these hazards and accidents such as issuing protective equipment or reducing exposure.
Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. You don't have to try and remove all the risks but the law requires you to do everything 'reasonably practicable' to protect people from harm.
So, first, look at what you're already doing and the control measures you have in place. Ask yourself:
- Can I get rid of the hazard altogether?
- If not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?
Some practical steps you could take to reduce the hazards you have identified include:
- try a less risky option
- prevent access to the hazards
- organise your work to reduce exposure to the hazard
- issue protective equipment
- provide welfare facilities such as first aid and washing facilities
- involve and consult with staff
Improving health and safety need not cost a lot. For instance, placing a mirror on a dangerous blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost you a lot more if an accident does happen.
Involve staff, so that you can be sure that what you propose to do will work in practice and won't introduce any new hazards. See consult your employees on health and safety.
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Record your safety risk assessment findings and implement them
How to record your findings after a risk assessment and put a plan of action in place to prioritise and mitigate or remove the risks you have identified.
It is important to accurately record the findings of your risk assessment. If you have fewer than five employees you don't have to write anything down. However, it is useful so that you can review it at a later date, if for example something changes.
An easy way to record your findings is to download and use the . This template also includes a section for your health and safety policy so you can record everything in one place.
When writing down your results, keep it simple. For example:
- 'Tripping over rubbish: bins provided, staff instructed, weekly housekeeping checks'
- 'Fume from welding: local exhaust ventilation used and regularly checked'
A risk assessment does not need to be perfect, but it must be 'suitable and sufficient'. The on the Health and Safety Executive website will give you an idea of what your risk assessment should look like.
What your records should include
It should show that:
- a proper check was made
- you asked who might be affected
- you dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
- the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low
- you involved your staff or their representatives in the process
Create an action plan
If, like many businesses, you find that there are quite a lot of improvements that you could make, big and small, don't try to do everything at once. Make a plan of action to deal with the most important things first.
A good plan of action often includes a mixture of different things such as:
- a few cheap or easy improvements that can be done quickly, perhaps as a temporary solution until more reliable controls are in place
- long-term solutions to those risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health
- long-term solutions to those risks with the worst potential consequences
- arrangements for training employees on the main risks that remain and how they are to be controlled
- regular checks to make sure that the control measures stay in place
- clear responsibilities - who will lead on what action and by when
Remember, prioritise and tackle the most important things first.
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Review your health and safety risk assessment
How to review your risk assessment on an ongoing basis to identify hazards or risks from any new equipment, substances or procedures in the workplace.
Once you have created your health and safety risk assessment, you should aim to review and revise it on a regular basis.
Why risk assessments need to be regularly revised
It's important to review and update your risk assessment because of the everyday changes that happen in all businesses. Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. So it makes sense to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis.
How to review your health and safety risk assessment
Look at your risk assessment again:
- Have there been any changes?
- Are there improvements you still need to make?
- Have your workers spotted a problem?
- Have you learnt anything from accidents or near misses?
Make sure your risk assessment stays up to date.
When you are running a business it's all too easy to forget about reviewing your risk assessment - until something has gone wrong and it's too late. Why not set a review date for this risk assessment now? Write it down and note it in your diary as an annual event.
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