freqently asked questions

 The law says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety.

A health and safety policy sets out your general approach to health and safety. It explains how you, as an employer, will manage health and safety in your business. It should clearly say who does what, when and how.

 If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, but it is useful to do so.

 You must share the policy, and any changes to it, with your employees.

The aim of SSIP is that clients can go to the website and check that you have a current Health & Safety Policy, amongst other Health & Safety documentation that will help you win the tender over other companies.

CDM 2015 makes a distinction between domestic clients and commercial clients, who commission construction work as part of their business.

A domestic client is any individual who has construction work carried out on their home, or the home of a family member, that is not done as part of any business. While CDM 2015 places client duties on commercial clients in full, such duties for domestic clients normally pass to:

• the contractor, if it is a single contractor project, who must take on the legal duties of the client in addition to their own as contractor. In practice, this should involve little more than what they normally do in managing health and safety risks
• the principal contractor, for projects with more than one contractor, who must take on the legal duties of the client in addition to their own as principal contractor. If the domestic client has not appointed a principal contractor, the client duties must be carried out by the contractor in control of the construction work

Fire risk assessments were introduced as part of the Fire Regulatory Reform Act in 2005. Introduced by the government the act aims to improve fire safety in the workplace and all public premises.

Yes. It is a lawful requirement if you have a HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) property or any business premises which employs 5 or more people, including part time staff, or you have members of the general public in the premises.

Yes. If you do not have an official Fire risk assessment and you’re unlucky enough to suffer damage as a result of a fire your insurance company could refuse to pay. You could also face prosecution if your local enforcing authority conduct an audit of your premises and consider it to be unsafe.