All companies must have a health and safety policy. Companies with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy. As a minimum, the written health and safety policy must cover three key areas:
• Health & Safety Policy Statement (signed by the owner, MD, etc)
• Organisation for health and safety (identifying who is responsible for what within the company)
• Arrangement for health and safety (dealing with the provision of training, various policies (such as machinery safety, occupational road risk, office safety, work at height, electrical safety, fire safety, control of contractors, etc)
The exact content of the health and safety policy will depend on the size and nature of the business. The health and safety policy should be unique to the business and may reflect the general ethos of the company.
If you have fewer than five employees, then it follows that you do not need to have a written health and safety policy. The issue is, if people with whom you want to trade insist on you having one, then what do you do? This is a business decision – if you want to trade with those organisations, you will need to satisfy the conditions that they impose. If you need our help, please contact us.