Health and Safety For New Businesses

It is essential as a business owner that you have a good understanding of the health and safety legislation relating to your business.  This legislation relates not only to health and safety and welfare of employees but also to the health and safety of anyone else who may be affected by the work activity e.g. customers, visitors, contractors and delivery personnel.

Why is health and safety important?

• Every year hundreds of people are killed and several hundred thousand suffer from injuries and illness through work related activities.
• In addition, there are huge monetary losses associated with accidents at work, both to the injured person and to the business through time off work, replacement staff and material damage, much of which is not covered by insurance.
• By ensuring that the working environment you provide is safe and suitable for the work activity you can go some way to reducing these losses as well as providing an environment which is safer and more enjoyable to work in.

Does health and safety legislation apply to my business?

In many cases particularly in small businesses, there is a tendency for employers to either:

• Believe that much of the legislation related to health and safety does not apply to them and/or
• Be unaware of the legislation that does apply to their business.

Health and safety law not only applies to businesses that have employees but also to those who are self-employed.

In the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, self-employed people are seen as both employers and employees, placing the same responsibilities on all concerned.  However, there are areas where exemptions are given to businesses with few employees.

We inspect businesses periodically to ensure that Health and Safety law is being complied with.  Complaints and serious accidents are also investigated and where necessary action taken to improve procedures or facilities or remove unsafe conditions.

New Business H&S Information Pack

We understand that for small businesses time and money is important so we have prepared an information pack to help you to put into practice the basic requirements and expectations of health and safety. For more details see our Business Information Pack page.

How do I find out what I need to do?

• Contact a health and safety officer for advice or a visit before opening: Call Environmental health on 01386 565015
• www.hse.gov.uk/smallbusinesses/index.htm provides help by showing you how to take some simple steps to get your health and safety organised
• HSE legislation  features the main pieces of legislation that may relate to your business. It guides you through the implementation of the requirements that they place on your business.
• HSE Publications offer a wide range of free and priced H&S publications
• www.safestartup.org is an interactive tool to help SME's (small and medium sized enterprises) and start up businesses comply with health and safety law

What you can expect from us

Click here to see how quickly we aim to deal with your enquiries

For more information contact:

Commercial Services Section, Environmental Services, Wychavon District Council, Civic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, Worcs. WR10 1PT

Telephone: 01386 565015 - between 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday
Fax: 01386 561826
Email: environmental.health@wychavon.gov.uk