An introduction to compliance with health and safety legislation

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which follows the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, regulates all health and safety in the UK. ETD's online Health and Safety Level 2 course. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and all relevant sub-legislations and why it is important to have Health and Safety within your workplace for both legal and moral responsibilities 

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

The Health and Safety at Work Act sets out the basic framework for the protection of workers’ health and safety. It created the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Employment Medical Advisory Services (EMAS) and outlines the basic duties regarding health and safety and means of enforcement.

The Act defines the general duties of:

·          Employers

·          Employees

·          Contractors

·          Suppliers of goods and substances for use at work

·          Persons in control of work premises and those who manage and maintain them

·          Persons in general 

The Act applies to everyone regardless of their position.

Employers’ responsibilities

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, employers must ensure the health, safety and welfare of both employees and others by:

·          Carrying out suitable and sufficient risk assessments.

·          Providing a health and safety policy if the company has five or more employees; they must keep a record of this.

·          Managing health and safety within the workplace.

·          Providing training to ensure competency throughout.

·          Providing a safe workplace and safe working practices.

Health and safety offences

If someone was injured or, worse, killed at work, this would be considered a health and safety offence. This offence would be treated as a criminal matter.

There are two types of health and safety offences: criminal and civil.

If an accused company fails to prove innocence, they may receive a fine or even, for the responsible people, a prison sentence.

Two organisations overlook Health and Safety practices in UK workplace environments: the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environmental Health Department (local authority) .

ETD’s Health and Safety Level 2 Course

If you need to know more about the Health and Safety at Work Act Regulations 1974 or any of the topics mentioned in this blog post,   then you can purchase ETD’s online Health and Safety Level 2 Course. Follow these five simple steps to get started.

·         Create a free company account or single user account, selecting the £12+ VAT payment scheme.

·         Purchase your user accounts using the online Elavon platform.

·         For company accounts, create your user accounts (using unique usernames) and activate each user by pressing the ’activate’ button.

·         Purchase your online training by selecting the courses that you require. Ticking a course will instantly assign it to the user’s account.

·         Once the courses have been assigned, single users can access the course under ‘my courses’. Company users can log into their account, go to ‘my courses’ and start the training.

If you require any assistance with the online training, then please contact our support team, who will be happy to help.