Health and Safety for Small Businesses — UK Employer Duties
UK health and safety law applies to every business with employees, however small. For most small businesses the duties are straightforward — the obligations that matter most kick in the day you hire your first employee, with a few more at five employees.
The General Duty
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees, and of anyone else affected by their work — customers, visitors, contractors and the public — "so far as is reasonably practicable". That phrase matters: you are expected to weigh a risk against the time, cost and effort of controlling it, not to eliminate every conceivable hazard.
The official starting point is the Health and Safety Executive's free guidance for small businesses on hse.gov.uk, including template risk assessments and policies for common business types.
What a Small Employer Must Do
| Duty | Applies from |
|---|---|
| Assess risks and put sensible controls in place | First employee |
| Hold employers' liability insurance (at least £5 million) | First employee |
| Display the "Health and safety law" poster or give employees the leaflet | First employee |
| Provide adequate first aid arrangements | First employee |
| Appoint a competent person to help (this can be you) | First employee |
| Consult employees on health and safety | First employee |
| Report certain injuries and incidents (RIDDOR) | First employee |
| Write down your health and safety policy | 5 or more employees |
| Record the significant findings of your risk assessment | 5 or more employees |
Risk Assessments
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer must assess the risks their work creates. A risk assessment does not need to be complicated. For a typical office or shop it means:
- Identifying hazards — trips, lifting, electrical equipment, display screens, stress, chemicals, lone working.
- Deciding who might be harmed and how — employees, visitors, new or young workers, pregnant employees.
- Deciding on controls — what you already do, and what more is reasonably practicable.
- Recording the findings — required at five or more employees, sensible below that.
- Reviewing it — whenever something significant changes, and periodically otherwise.
Staff who use computer screens for long periods are covered by separate display screen equipment rules: assess their workstations and offer an eye test on request.
Employers' Liability Insurance
The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires most employers to hold at least £5 million of cover from the moment they take someone on, including part-time and temporary staff. You can be fined up to £2,500 for every day you are not properly insured. The certificate must be available to employees — on a noticeboard or electronically.
There are limited exemptions — for example, some family businesses where all employees are closely related, and limited companies whose only employee owns 50% or more of the shares. Our business insurance guide covers employers' liability alongside the optional covers most small businesses also need.
First Aid and Reporting Accidents
Every employer must make adequate first aid provision based on an assessment of their own needs. A small, low-risk office may need only a stocked first aid kit and an appointed person to take charge if someone is hurt; higher-risk work needs trained first aiders.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) require you to report certain incidents to the HSE — including deaths, specified serious injuries, injuries keeping a worker off normal duties for more than seven days, some occupational diseases and certain dangerous occurrences. Keep an accident book either way; it also helps if a claim is made later.
Fire Safety
In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes the person responsible for business premises carry out a fire risk assessment and keep it up to date, and record it in writing once five or more people are employed. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalent fire safety legislation. If you share or rent premises, agree with your landlord who is responsible for which parts.
If You Are Self-Employed
Since October 2015, self-employed people whose work poses no potential risk to others are exempt from the 1974 Act. The exemption does not cover prescribed higher-risk activities — including construction, agriculture, gas work, asbestos and railways — and it ends the moment you take on an employee. Working from your own home on a laptop is typically exempt; working on customers' premises often is not.
Who Enforces It, and the Penalties
The Health and Safety Executive covers workplaces such as factories, construction sites and farms. Local council environmental health officers cover most offices, shops, warehouses, hotels, restaurants and leisure businesses. Inspectors can give advice, issue improvement or prohibition notices, and prosecute. Fines for serious breaches are unlimited and scale with the size of the business, so the cost of getting basic compliance right is small by comparison.