Who enforces health and safety in your workplace
Health and safety enforcement is split between:
- Council of the Isles of Scilly, which covers most service and retail premises
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) covering larger premises such as boatyards.
More information about who enforces health and safety.
Who is responsible for health and safety
Most health and safety legislation place the legal duty to comply on the employer (company, partnership or individual). Responsibilities may be delegated to a 'competent person' appointed to give health and safety advice, eg - the first aiders, the fire wardens, the caretaker, but the employer remains legally liable. All employees have a legal duty to co-operate with the employer and not to damage or misuse anything provided for health and safety. Directors, managers, supervisors etc can be prosecuted for health and safety offences if the offence took place with their 'consent or responsibility'. Employers must consult their employees on health and safety matters. The 'competent person' may be the employer themself, a suitably trained employee or a consultant.
What you need to do
- Provide a safe and healthy place of work for your staff, customers, visitors and contractors
- Provide and maintain safe equipment and machinery that is suitable for its purpose.
- Plan work activities so that they are safe and without risks to health and provide any necessary protective equipment
- Provide staff and others with all necessary information, instruction, supervision and training
- Assess risks to staff and others from the workplace and work activities and check that all necessary safeguards are in place
- Check that contractors use safe systems of work when they are on your premises and give them any information they might need to work safely, for example, asbestos panels on fire doors
- Record accidents in your accident book and report them when necessary
More information - Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
What does the Environmental Health Department do
- The team seeks to protect people from accident, ill health or injury and property from damage, helping to promote business efficiency
- We ensure that accident notifications received in accordance with the Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) are investigated
- We promote health and safety on the Isles of Scilly in accordance with local and national initiatives
- We carry out health and safety inspections
- We investigate complaints about workplaces
- We investigate cases of infectious disease notified across the islands