Write a health and safety policy for your business

The responsibilities section of your policy should clearly say who is responsible for what.

As an employer, you must appoint someone competent to help you meet your health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.

You could appoint (one or a combination of):

• yourself
• one or more of your workers
• someone from outside your business

You probably manage most aspects of your business yourself, or with the help of your staff. But if you are not confident of your ability to manage all health and safety in-house, you may need some external help or advice.

Deciding what help you need is very important. Unless you are clear about what you want, you probably won't get the help you need.

You should identify who will:

• conduct health and safety risk assessments
• make workplace inspections
• ensure safety when specific tasks or work activities are carried out, or in specific areas of the workplace

See appoint a competent person for health and safety.