FAQs

CHAS is a health and safety accreditation scheme for the construction industry, and often acts as a type of pre-qualification during the tender process. Whilst it is not a legal requirement, many organisations use this scheme to determine that their supply chain has the required skills, knowledge and experience to carry out work on their behalf.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 require that the responsible person for any non-domestic premises must carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises and review it regularly.

This depends on the seriousness of the offence and whether you’ve previously been told about matters. You may be served with an improvement notice requiring the Health & Safety failing to be rectified. In more severe cases, you can be taken to court.

The primary responsibility for Health & Safety rests with the employer. But employees also have a duty to look out for any risks and report them.

Health & Safety laws apply to all businesses no matter the size.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order states that employers must appoint one or more competent persons to assist them with undertaking preventative and protective measures.

The number of fire wardens depends upon several factors and will be outlined in your fire risk assessment.

Whilst there is no legal requirement for a business to have an environmental policy, many find it a useful tool in setting out their aims and objectives. A properly implemented environmental policy can help businesses in a number of ways. These include reducing their carbon footprint, improving recycling, reducing reliance on packaging and minimising waste.

The first step is to prepare a construction phase plan. This will set out how you intend to plan and organise the job, and work together with others involved to make sure that the work is carried out without risks to health and safety. Only once this plan is created can any work be carried out.

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition. However, the Regulations do not specify what needs to be done, by whom or how frequently (i.e. they don’t make inspection or testing of electrical appliances a legal requirement).

Your business must have a health and safety policy, and if you have more than five employees, it must be written down. The policy should include a general statement outlining your commitment to managing health and safety effectively and what you wish to achieve; responsibilities and; arrangements.