How does Health & Safety affect my business?

Accidents in the workplace occur because someone does something wrong, or doesn’t do something they should do. Nearly all accidents and things that damage someone’s health are preventable.

Each year in Britain are about 150 people lose their lives, 150,000 people are injured and about two million suffer from ill health caused or made worse by work.  And small businesses have more than their fair share of incidents –  for example, the fatality rate in small and medium size manufacturers is about twice that of large ones.

As an employer – even if you only employ yourself – you have a legal responsibility to prevent people being harmed or becoming ill in the workplace. This makes good business sense too – accidents and health incidents can cause disruption, lead to extra expense and damage your reputation.

Here are common health and safety incidents:

• Slips, trips and falls: these are the most common causes of injury at work. They’re particularly frequent in catering businesses but can happen in any workplace
• Strains and sprains: people can hurt themselves lifting even everyday loads. Workers who perform repetitive or forceful manual activities can develop repetitive strain injuries (RSI). Poor posture, inadequate chairs, and badly positioned computer screens can cause back, arm and neck strain
• Burns, cuts and crushes: improper use of tools, poor maintenance of equipment, and careless storage of materials cause many accidents
• Falls from height: these cause about 60 fatalities and around 4,000 serious injuries every year
• Hazardous substances: exposure to chemicals, dust, and fibres – by breathing them in, swallowing them, getting them on the skin or in the eyes – can cause serious conditions and in some cases can even be fatal
• Fire and explosions: improper storage and handling of flammable materials and liquids can cause burns and injury from smoke inhalation
• Electric shock: every year deaths and permanent injuries are caused by shocks from faulty electric appliances and from contact with power cables
• Vehicles: over 2,000 people a year are seriously injured in accidents involving different types of workplace vehicles
• Stress: excessive pressure can cause stress that’s very damaging to health
• Excessive noise: power tools, impact tools, hammering, can all cause hearing loss
• Vibration: some types of power tools and plant can cause painful and permanent damage to hands, arms and backs.

You need to establish a system to manage health and safety. For example:

• produce a health and safety policy
• designate a competent person to be responsible for health and safety (this could be you)
• set up a way of planning, organising, monitoring and reviewing preventative measures.

If you’re subjected to a health and safety inspection you may need to provide evidence that you have a properly thought-through and systematic approach.

If you employ more than five people you must set out your approach in a written health and safety policy statement. Creating a policy doesn’t need to be a time consuming and complicated process. The Health and Safety Executive provides templates and examples of such statements.

It’s impossible to eliminate every risk but health and safety law in business requires you to take ‘reasonable and practical’ steps to protect people, including yourself.

• Identify any hazards – things that could cause harm. If you have employees ask them – they may be aware of things that you haven’t noticed
• Decide how you are going to control the hazards you’ve identified. Wherever it’s practical get rid of a hazards. For example, fix broken handrails, repair or replace defective equipment, change dangerous chemicals for less harmful ones
• If you can’t remove the hazard you need to control it to reduce the risk it will cause and minimise harmful effects
• Once you’ve identified risks and decided upon measures to control them make sure that anyone you employ understands them – if you have more than five employees you must put this into writing
• Be aware that for some risks the law specifies control measures that you must use 
• Each type of business will have its own risks – some being more severe than others – but the way of doing a risk assessment is the same.

To find out more on risk assessment visit the Health and Safety Executive’s website to view their risk assessment tool and various risk assessment case studies. 

There are two types of insurance related to health and safety:

• Employers’ Liability Insurance. If you employ anyone you need this. As long as you’ve taken reasonable steps to prevent accidents or harm to your employees you shouldn’t have to pay compensation. However, if a court does find you liable, employers’ liability insurance will help you to pay compensation. You need to display your certificate of insurance where employees can see it.

• Public Liability Insurance. This is designed to protect you from claims from members of the public relating to harm or damage caused by your business activities. You need this insurance if your business involves contact with the public, for example if you have a shop or if you’re a tradesperson.