Health and safety questions, answered straight
Common questions about UK health and safety duties, answered without the jargon and without pretending every business needs everything. Each answer states the law it comes from so you can check it yourself.
Working with a health and safety consultant
What does a health and safety consultant actually do?
A health and safety consultant acts as the competent person a business is required to appoint, assessing risks, writing the arrangements that control them, checking those arrangements work, and supporting the business when something goes wrong. SiteSafe Solution does this on an outsourced basis for UK employers who do not need a full-time safety manager.
Does my business have to appoint a competent person?
Yes. Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to help them comply with health and safety law. That person can be an employee or an external consultant, and the regulation gives preference to appointing from within where someone suitable exists.
How much does health and safety consultancy cost?
Cost depends on the size of the business, the number of sites and how much documentation already exists. SiteSafe Solution quotes per piece of work, or as a bespoke package, after an initial consultation, so you see a figure before committing. Send an enquiry describing your operations and you will get a proportionate recommendation.
Do I need a consultant if I only have a few employees?
Small employers carry the same legal duties as large ones, with two thresholds that change the paperwork: at five or more employees, the health and safety policy and the significant findings of risk assessments must be written down. Below that the duties still apply, and most small businesses use a consultant occasionally rather than continuously.
What happens during an initial consultation?
SiteSafe Solution reviews what your business does, who is affected, what arrangements already exist and where the gaps are. You get a clear picture of your legal position and a proportionate recommendation with a price attached. There is no obligation to proceed and no attempt to sell documents you do not need.
Which parts of the UK does SiteSafe Solution cover?
SiteSafe Solution supports businesses across the United Kingdom, with remote document work and on-site visits for audits, inspections and investigations. Where a project needs a specialist discipline such as asbestos surveying or occupational health, the work is coordinated through an established network of specialist professionals.
Questions about health and safety
Does my business legally need a written health and safety policy?
If you employ five or more people, section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires a written health and safety policy that is brought to your employees' attention. Below five employees the duty to manage safety still applies in full, but the policy does not have to be written down.
What is the difference between a risk assessment and RAMS?
A risk assessment identifies the hazards in an activity and the controls that reduce them. RAMS is a risk assessment plus a method statement: a task-specific pack that also sets out, step by step, how the job will be done safely. Principal contractors usually ask for RAMS before you are allowed on site.
How often should a risk assessment be reviewed?
There is no fixed legal interval. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires review whenever the assessment is no longer valid or there has been a significant change. In practice most businesses review annually, and immediately after an incident, a new process or a change of site.
Can I just download a health and safety policy template?
You can, but a template that does not describe your actual activities is not a suitable and sufficient assessment, and it tends to fail at the moment it matters: an insurance claim, a tender review or an HSE visit. SiteSafe Solution writes documents around your operations so they hold up under scrutiny.
Full detail on the health and safety page.
Questions about auditing & assurance
What is the difference between a safety audit and a site inspection?
A site inspection is a physical walk round looking at conditions on the day: access, plant, housekeeping, welfare and work at height. An audit is a deeper review of the system behind those conditions, testing whether your policies, training records and monitoring actually produce safe work. Most businesses need both, at different intervals.
How often should site inspections be carried out?
Frequency should match the risk. Active construction sites are commonly inspected weekly or fortnightly, and lower risk workplaces monthly or quarterly. The test in regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 is whether your monitoring is effective, so the honest answer is: often enough to catch problems before they cause harm.
What do I actually receive after an audit?
SiteSafe Solution provides a written report with findings ranked by risk, photographs where they help, the legal or good practice reference behind each finding, and a corrective action plan with owners and target dates. The point is a list you can work through, not a document that sits in a drawer.
Will an audit help with pre-qualification schemes?
An audit produces much of the evidence pre-qualification assessments ask for: current risk assessments, monitoring records, training records, accident reporting arrangements and proof that findings get closed out. SiteSafe Solution is not an assessment body, but the output is designed to be handed straight to one.
Full detail on the auditing & assurance page.
Questions about construction & project safety
Does every construction project need a construction phase plan?
Yes. Regulation 12 of CDM 2015 requires a construction phase plan for every construction project, including small jobs and work for domestic clients. The plan must be proportionate: a loft conversion does not need the same document as a tower block, but it does need one before work starts.
When does a project have to be notified to the HSE?
Under regulation 6 of CDM 2015 a project is notifiable if the construction work will last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working at the same time at any point, or if it will exceed 500 person days. Notification is made to the HSE on form F10 before the construction phase begins.
Do domestic clients have CDM duties?
Householders having work done on their own home do have CDM client duties, but regulation 7 normally passes those duties to the contractor, or to the principal contractor where there is more than one contractor. The practical effect is that the builder carries the client duties unless a written agreement says otherwise.
What does a principal designer actually do?
The principal designer plans, manages and monitors the pre-construction phase and coordinates health and safety during design. In plain terms, they make sure foreseeable risks are designed out or reduced before anyone is on site, and that the information other duty holders need is passed on.
Full detail on the construction & project safety page.
Questions about incident & emergency management
What has to be reported to the HSE under RIDDOR?
RIDDOR 2013 requires the responsible person to report work-related deaths, a defined list of specified injuries such as fractures other than to fingers and toes, injuries that keep a worker off their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days, listed occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences such as a scaffold collapse or a lifting equipment failure.
How long do I have to report a RIDDOR incident?
Deaths and specified injuries must be reported without delay, with the report followed up within ten days. Over-seven-day injuries must be reported within fifteen days of the accident. Injuries keeping someone off their normal duties for more than three days must be recorded, even though they are not reportable.
Do I have to investigate a near miss?
There is no direct legal duty to investigate every near miss, but regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires effective monitoring and review. Near misses are the cheapest warning a business will ever get, and insurers and clients increasingly ask what was done about them.
What should an accident investigation produce?
A useful investigation establishes what happened, why the controls did not work, and what will change. SiteSafe Solution provides a factual sequence of events, immediate and underlying causes, the reporting position under RIDDOR, and a corrective action plan with named owners so the same accident is less likely to repeat.
Full detail on the incident & emergency management page.
Questions about specialist / partner services
Who is the responsible person for fire safety?
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person is the employer for a workplace, or otherwise the person in control of the premises, such as an owner, landlord or occupier. In many buildings more than one responsible person exists, and they are required to cooperate with each other.
Does my fire risk assessment have to be written down?
Yes. Since 1 October 2023, amendments made by the Building Safety Act 2022 require every responsible person to record their fire risk assessment in full. Before that date only businesses with five or more employees had to record the significant findings, so many older assessments no longer meet the standard.
Which buildings need an asbestos survey?
The duty to manage under regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 applies to non-domestic premises, including the common parts of flats. Buildings constructed or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain asbestos, so unless you have evidence it is absent you need a survey, or you must presume asbestos is present.
What health surveillance does my business need?
It depends on exposure. COSHH, the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 each trigger health surveillance at defined exposure levels, covering matters such as respiratory sensitisers, hearing and hand-arm vibration. SiteSafe Solution coordinates provision with specialist occupational health providers.
Full detail on the specialist / partner services page.
Last reviewed . Legislation references are checked at each review.
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