How does new Health & Safety guidance affect my business?

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has recently launched new guidance for larger organisations and businesses to understand how to manage health & safety.

The release of this new guidance is significant because it has been designed to make it clearer and easier for businesses to understand exactly what their responsibilities are and to ensure they are doing everything required of them.

The upshot of this is that it will make it much more difficult for businesses to mitigate their exposure to health and safety investigation and proceedings on the basis that they were ignorant to basic health and safety requirements.

It is therefore vital, that all businesses fully understand the new guidance and take the appropriate steps to ensure they are compliant.

The new guidance aims to help business leaders, owners, directors, trustees and line-managers and is split into four key sections:

• Core elements of managing for health & safety
• Are you doing what you need to?
• Delivering effective arrangements
• Resources

The improved information will help those responsible for putting in place or overseeing their organisation’s arrangements for health and safety, including health and safety practitioners and training providers.

Following the guidance is not compulsory, unless specifically stated, and businesses are free to take other action, but if they do follow the guidance, then they will normally be doing enough to comply with the law, especially as health & safety inspectors may refer to this guidance.

Compliance can have a big impact for businesses when seeking to mitigate their financial exposure if a matter ends up in court.

If you require further information on complying with health and safety laws, or any other regulatory legal matter, contact David Edwards on 01772 258321 or David.Edwards@harrison-drury.com