Health and Safety Law

What you need to know:
• All workers have a right to work in places where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled.
• Health and safety is about stopping you getting hurt at work or ill through work.
• Your employer is responsible for health and safety, but you must help.

What employers must do for you:
1. Decide what could harm you in your job and the precautions to stop it. This is part of risk assessment.
2. In a way you can understand, explain how risks will be controlled and tell you who is responsible for this.
3. Consult and work with you and your health and safety representatives in protecting everyone from harm in the workplace.
4. Free of charge, give you the health and safety training you need to do your job.
5. Free of charge, provide you with any equipment and protective clothing you need, and ensure it is properly looked after.
6. Provide toilets, washing facilities and drinking water.
7. Provide adequate first-aid facilities.
8. Report major injuries and fatalities at work to our Incident Contact Centre. Report other injuries, diseases and dangerous incidents online at www.hse.gov.uk.
9. Have insurance that covers you in case you get hurt at work or ill through work. Display a hard copy or electronic copy of the current insurance certificate where you can easily read it.
10. Work with any other employers or contractors sharing the workplace or providing employees (such as agency workers), so that everyone’s health and safety is protected

Adapted from: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/law.pdf under Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/

Questions:

1 How should the control of risks be explained?
2 What should be provided free of charge?
3 Where are fatalities reported?
4 What should be displayed so everyone could read it?

In your own words, explain the words below:

insurance ___________________________________________________________________
provide somebody with ________________________________________________________
protective clothing ____________________________________________________________
provide something ____________________________________________________________