Health and Safety Responsibilities Under UK Law

H&S Responsibilities in Brief

Employers - HSWA 1974 section 2, MHSW Regs 1999
Employees - HSWA section 7 and 8 to take reasonable care
Self-employed and the self-employed exemption in 2015

Health and Safety Responsibilities

The UK legal framework places duties on several categories of people - employers, the self-employed, people in control of premises, manufacturers and suppliers, and workers themselves. Within the organisation, those legal duties have to be translated into specific roles so that the practical work of risk assessment, training, inspection, reporting and review actually gets done.

A written record of who does what is part of every health and safety policy. That record should be specific, current and communicated to the people who hold the responsibilities. A policy that lists job titles nobody recognises or holds people responsible for work they do not know about is no better than no policy at all.

Duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

In the UK, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places general duties on:

Employers - to protect, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees, and the health and safety of others affected by their work
The self-employed - to conduct their work so that they and others are not exposed to risks to their health or safety
People in control of premises - to make non-domestic premises and plant made available to others for use at work safe and without risk to health
Manufacturers, designers, importers and suppliers - to make sure articles and substances supplied for use at work are safe and without risk to health
Employees - to take reasonable care for their own safety and that of others affected by their acts or omissions, and to co-operate with their employer on health and safety matters

These are the baseline duties. The detail of how each is discharged is filled in by topic-specific regulations and by the organisation's own management arrangements.

Internal Responsibilities in the Organisation

Inside the organisation, health and safety responsibilities typically cascade from top management down through line management to the workers doing the job. A working split that fits most organisations is:

Directors and top management - setting the policy, providing resources, ensuring senior accountability for H&S performance, reviewing the management system
H&S lead or SHEQ manager - maintaining the management system, advising on risk assessment, co-ordinating training, tracking incidents and improvement actions
Line managers and supervisors - making sure the work they oversee is done safely, delivering briefings, addressing hazards they encounter, following up on incidents
Workers - following safe systems of work, using equipment and PPE properly, reporting hazards and incidents, co-operating with the organisation on H&S
Appointed role holders - first aiders, fire marshals, DSE assessors, lone worker buddies and other named roles that need specific competence and availability

The split has to be tailored to the organisation. A 10-person consultancy does not need a full SHEQ manager role; a 500-person manufacturer probably needs more than one. What matters is that every duty has an owner and every owner knows what they own.

The Role of the Competent Person

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers in the UK must appoint one or more competent persons to help them comply with their H&S duties. Competence here means having sufficient training, knowledge and experience to deal with the risks and controls in the specific workplace - not a particular qualification on its own.

For smaller organisations with lower-risk work, the competent person can be an employee with relevant training. For larger or higher-risk organisations, it is usually a dedicated H&S professional, either internal or contracted in. The regulations give preference to appointing an employee over an external consultant where an employee is competent to do the work.

Construction Work and CDM 2015

Construction work carries a separate set of H&S duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM). CDM applies to almost all UK construction work, not just large projects, and places duties on specific roles:

Client - makes suitable arrangements for managing a project and sees that other duty holders are appointed with appropriate skills and resources
Principal designer - plans, manages and monitors the pre-construction phase, co-ordinates matters relating to H&S during design
Principal contractor - plans, manages and monitors the construction phase, co-ordinates H&S during the build
Designers - eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable H&S risks arising from their design
Contractors - plan, manage and monitor the construction work they carry out
Workers - co-operate with duty holders, take reasonable care for their own and others' safety, report defects

For domestic projects, the client duties pass to the contractor (or principal contractor on multi-contractor projects), but the other CDM duties still apply. Organisations that commission, design or carry out construction work need to understand which CDM role they hold on each project and what that role requires.

Competence, Training and SSIP

Responsibilities are only worth having if the person holding them is competent to discharge them. Training records should demonstrate that role holders have received the training their role needs and are kept up to date as requirements change. For H&S advisers, recognised qualifications include the NEBOSH General Certificate and Diploma, IOSH Managing Safely, and construction-specific variants for those working in that sector.

SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) is the umbrella body for UK pre-qualification schemes such as CHAS, Constructionline, Altius and others. SSIP accreditation demonstrates that an organisation has H&S arrangements in place suitable for the work it does, and is often required as a pre-condition of tendering for construction and public sector work. A clear set of responsibilities, evidenced by training records and working practice, is central to maintaining SSIP status.

The biggest gap I see is between what the policy says and what the person in the job actually knows. A line manager whose job description does not mention H&S, who has had no training on their responsibilities and who has never been told they are accountable - that person is not going to deliver on the policy.

Fix that by making responsibilities explicit at appointment and at every appraisal. If H&S accountability is part of the role, put it in the job description and put it in the objectives.

The other common trap is overloading the H&S adviser. Responsibilities that should sit with line management end up with the H&S team because that is the only part of the organisation that takes ownership. It is a sign the system is not really embedded.

We put responsibilities into every role's job description when we updated the H&S policy. It was a two-week exercise. Since then, nobody has been able to say they did not know what was expected of them.

On CDM, we do occasional small works - a partition wall, a mezzanine floor. We made sure the managers who commission that work know they are the CDM client and what that means. It is not complicated, but it does need to be known.

Under ISO 45001 Clause 5.3, the organisation has to assign responsibility and authority for roles that are relevant to the management system, and communicate them. Auditors look for evidence that this has been done - a written record of who does what, communicated to the people who hold the roles, with training records to back it up.

A common finding is a policy that lists responsibilities by job title, but where the people holding those titles have never been formally briefed. The paper looks fine, the practice does not.

Practical Compliance Guidance

Health and safety responsibilities are documented within the IMS1 Manual as part of the management system structure, and supported by the H&S policy, roles and responsibilities documents and CDM guidance.

The alphaZ documents below cover the roles and responsibilities framework, the policy documents that communicate responsibilities to workers, and the CDM-specific resources for organisations that commission or carry out construction work.

alphaZ document	How to use it
ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 IMS Toolkit	Full integrated management system toolkit containing the roles and responsibilities documents listed below alongside the wider management system templates.
ACP06 Roles and Responsibilities	Template for documenting roles and responsibilities across the management system, covering H&S alongside quality and environment where an integrated system is used.
P-3 Health and Safety Policy	Standalone H&S policy template - the responsibilities section of the policy communicates who holds which duties to workers and other interested parties.
PP-7-100 Health and Safety Policy-Procedure	Combined policy and procedure setting out the organisation's H&S arrangements including the responsibilities for each role.
ACP24 Commitment to Health and Safety at Work	Top-level commitment statement that can be included in the integrated management system manual to demonstrate senior accountability.
ACP25 Health and Safety at Work Guidance and Arrangements	Template setting out the practical arrangements for H&S management, including the responsibility allocation across roles.
GG-1-15 CDM Guidance	Plain-language guidance on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 - covers the duty holder roles and what each one involves.
CDM Guidance Toolbox Talk	Short training talk on CDM duty holder responsibilities, suitable for briefing managers, designers and contractors on their obligations.

Note - all the above files can be downloaded with an alphaZ subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is responsible for health and safety in a small business?

In the UK, the employer - whether a company, a partnership or a sole trader - has the primary legal duty. In practice, the day-to-day work is usually shared between the owner, any line managers, and the workers themselves. Competent person appointments are required regardless of organisation size, but can be met by an employee with appropriate training for lower-risk work.

Do directors have personal legal liability for H&S failures?

Yes. Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 allows directors, managers, secretaries or similar officers to be prosecuted personally where an offence has been committed with their consent, connivance, or is attributable to their neglect. In serious cases the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 may apply, and gross negligence manslaughter charges against individuals remain possible.

Can H&S responsibilities be delegated to a consultant?

Advisory work can be delegated to an external consultant. Statutory duties cannot. The employer remains legally accountable for H&S regardless of who provides advice or assistance. A consultant can help with risk assessments, training, policy drafting and audits, but the decision-making and the legal responsibility stay with the employer.

What responsibilities do workers have under UK H&S law?

Under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and that of others affected by their acts or omissions, and co-operate with the employer on H&S matters. Section 8 prohibits interference with or misuse of anything provided in the interests of H&S. Breach can result in personal prosecution, though in practice this is uncommon.

UK Legislation

The following UK legislation is directly relevant to health and safety responsibilities. Organisations outside the UK should identify the equivalent legislation applicable in their jurisdiction.

Further Resources