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Luton Borough Council

Duties of an employer

Employers are responsible for protecting the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their work activities.

If you employ five or more staff, you must produce a written Health and Safety Policy which sets out how you intend to achieve health and safety within your business and the arrangements you intend to put in place to implement your policy.
Follow this link for information, written with small businesses in mind, on the basics in Health and Safety for your business
General Benefits of H&S to business 
A commitment to safety and health makes a successful business and sense.
It demonstrates to workers that their protection is a key importance and when they are well-protected and well-trained they are better motivated, take less sickness absence and show greater loyalty.
Poor reputation can put customers off doing business with you, it can prejudice your position and
a bad reputation often spreads more  than good performance.
Health and safety officers:
  • inspect workplaces to ensure they are safe and that employers are complying with the law
  • investigate complaints about unsafe workplaces
  • investigate accidents and dangerous occurrences that have occurred in a workplace
  • provide advice and information to businesses, employees and members of the public
  • promote awareness and knowledge through projects and campaigns
  • work in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive and other organisations
Risk Assessment
Do I have to do a risk assessment? Yes. The law says that all businesses must do a risk assessment regardless of the number of employees or whether they are part time. If you employ 5 or more people then you must write down the main findings of your risk assessment
How do I do a risk assessment?
Generally a risk assessment has 5 steps:
  1. What are the hazards in your business? A hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm. You should concentrate on your main hazards, you are not expected to identify every single hazard. Where there are common factors you can group these together, for example slips and trips is one of the biggest causes of accidents, if you have more than 1 area you can assess them at the same time as your controls are likely to be the same
  2. Who might be hurt by these hazards? This could be a just a few people or a lot. Make sure that you remember to include any members of the public, contractors or visitors who might come to your business
  3. How are you controlling the hazards? This is likely to be things that you are already doing but the risk assessment process can help you to think of extra things that will help protect people
  4. Write down the main findings of your risk assessment. The law says that you must do this if you employ 5 or more people. It is good practice for businesses employing less than 5 people to write this down. There is no standard format, it has to have the relevant information and work for your business
  5. Reviewing your risk assessment. You should look at your risk assessment from time to time to make sure that it still reflects what you do. Has anything changed? Do you have any new equipment? If yes, you should change your risk assessment as soon as possible. If nothing has changed make a note of the date that you reviewed the risk assessment
Follow this link to see some example risk assessments
 
Accident Reports
I don’t know if an accident should be reported, what should I do? If you not sure whether the accident you know about should be reported you can fill in the forms online and let the enforcing authority decide what to do with the information.
 
Follow this link to report an accident.
 
I am a business
Follow this link for information if you are in business in Luton.
 
What to expect when a Health and Safety Officer visits your business
When a health and safety officer visits they will look at the workplace, work activities and the health and safety management system that the business has in place.
They do not always announce visits, particularly when they are investigating accidents or complaints but may make appointments during a routine inspection to ensure that they speak to a senior member of staff.
Officers may ask to review paperwork which will include the following:
  • health and safety policy
  • risk assessments
  • plant maintenance and inspection records
  • training records
  • accident records 
What action can an officer take?
If officers have any concerns then the following forms of action may be taken depending on the seriousness of the situation:
Informal - verbal or written advice/instruction/warning
Improvement Notice - 21 days to comply with legal requirements
Prohibition Notice - prohibition of a work activity or use of work equipment either immediately or after a specified time
Prosecution - if there is a failure to comply with notices
Sector Based Projects
We are  involved in a number of projects aimed to improve health and safety standards in industry sectors.
© 2024 Luton Council, Town Hall, Luton LU1 2BQ