Safety statement: what the 2005 Act requires, and how to show it is followed

01

The duty: section 20 of the 2005 Act

The safety statement comes from section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, which says that every employer shall prepare, or cause to be prepared, a written statement, "based on the identification of the hazards and the risk assessment carried out under section 19, specifying the manner in which the safety, health and welfare at work of his or her employees shall be secured and managed." The quotations in this guide are from the Act as enacted on the Irish Statute Book.

The safety statement rests on the risk assessment. Section 19 requires every employer to identify the hazards in the place of work under their control, assess the risks those hazards present and be in possession of a written risk assessment. It must be reviewed where there has been a significant change or there is another reason to believe it is no longer valid, and the employer must implement the improvements it shows to be necessary. The safety statement is where those findings are brought together with the arrangements for acting on them.

The duty is wider than the employer's own staff. Section 12 requires every employer to conduct the undertaking so that people at the place of work who are not its employees are not exposed to risks, so far as is reasonably practicable. Section 15 places a duty on a person who has control to any extent of a non-domestic place of work made available to others, including anyone who, by contract, tenancy or licence, is obliged to maintain or repair it. Section 20(9) then requires every person to whom section 12 or 15 applies to prepare a safety statement to the extent that those duties reach people other than their own employees. A landlord or an owners' management company with common parts that contractors work in can have duties of this kind.

Failing to discharge the duty is an offence. Section 77(2)(a) makes it an offence to fail to discharge a duty under, among others, sections 15 to 23, which include section 20, and the HSA's safety statement and risk assessment guidance says plainly that employers can be prosecuted if they do not have one. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) does not approve safety statements in advance: it is the employer's responsibility to make sure the document fits the organisation, and an inspector who finds it inadequate can direct that it be amended within 30 days (section 20(5)(c)).

02

What a safety statement must contain

Section 20(2) lists what the statement must specify. Every employer shall ensure that it sets out:

1. the hazards identified and the risks assessed;
2. the protective and preventive measures taken, and the resources provided, for the place of work it relates to;
3. the plans and procedures for an emergency or serious and imminent danger, in compliance with sections 8 and 11 (section 11 covers first aid, fire-fighting, evacuation and the employees designated to carry out those plans);
4. the duties of employees regarding safety, health and welfare at work, including co-operation with the employer and with anyone who has responsibility under the law;
5. the names and, where applicable, the job title or position of each person responsible for tasks assigned under the statement;
6. the arrangements for safety representatives and consultation with employees, in compliance with sections 25 and 26, including the names of the safety representative and the members of the safety committee, if appointed.

The HSA's A Guide to Risk Assessments and Safety Statements (updated December 2016) recommends breaking the document into four sections:

• Section 1: Health and safety policy. A declaration signed at senior management level, committing to a workplace as safe and healthy as reasonably practicable and to meeting the relevant statutory requirements, with the business name, address and contact details.
• Section 2: Safety arrangements and information. The general policies and ongoing commitments: welfare facilities, competence and training, visitors, personal protective equipment, pregnant employees and young people, dignity at work and work-related stress, roles and responsibilities, contractors' responsibilities, accident reporting and investigation, and emergency procedures including first aid and fire.
• Section 3: Forms and records. A responsible person register, emergency contacts, an induction register and topic checklist, a training register, a PPE register, accident investigation forms and relevant safety data sheets.
• Section 4: Risk assessments and action list. The hazards identified and assessed, and the control measures for each.

The statement does not have to repeat everything. The HSA's guidance says it can refer to procedures held elsewhere, such as operating instructions, manufacturers' instructions, safety data sheets and company procedures, provided workers know about them and can reach them easily, and it is for the employer to decide whether to combine the documents or keep them separate.

03

Who needs one, and who prepares it

The HSA lists those required to prepare a risk assessment and safety statement as all employers, those who control workplaces to any extent, those who provide workplaces for use by others, and the self-employed. There is one narrow concession. Section 20(8) says an employer with three or fewer employees complies by observing a code of practice relating to safety statements for their class of work, if one exists. The HSA explains that this only applies where it has issued such a code, and gives construction, agriculture and fishing as sectors with one; a risk assessment must still be prepared. A small office, shop or cleaning company with no sector code still needs a statement of its own.

In a building shared between organisations, several safety statements meet. Section 21 requires employers who share a place of work to co-operate, co-ordinate their actions and inform each other and their respective employees and safety representatives of the risks, "including by the exchange of safety statements or relevant extracts". In a multi-tenant office, a shopping centre, or an apartment development where an owners' management company appoints a managing agent who engages contractors, write down whose statement covers which common area and which task. A contract cleaning or security firm has its own safety statement for its own employees, and the client's statement tells it about the risks of the building.

Section 20(6) goes further for activities that may be prescribed under it: an employer conducting such activities who contracts with another employer for services must require that employer to have an up-to-date safety statement. Whatever the legal position for your sector, a client or an insurer may ask to see a contractor's statement, and the HSA's FAQ answers the employer whose insurer has asked for one: the HSA does not supply safety statements, but its guidelines and tools can be used to prepare your own.

Who writes it? The HSA's view is that the employer has ultimate responsibility, and that in most office, retail, commercial, service and light industrial firms the hazards are few and simple enough for the employer to identify and assess themselves, involving managers and employees as much as possible. Where the expertise is not available in-house, a competent person can help, but the statement remains the employer's.

04

Bringing it to people's attention, and keeping it available

A safety statement nobody has read does not do its job, and section 20(3) makes the reading part of the duty. The employer must bring the statement, in a form, manner and, as appropriate, language reasonably likely to be understood, to the attention of:

• employees, at least annually and at any other time after it is amended;
• newly recruited employees when they start; and
• other people at the place of work who may be exposed to a specific risk the statement covers.

The HSA gives outside contractors doing cleaning, maintenance or building work, temporary workers, delivery people and self-employed people providing a service as examples of those other people. Where specific tasks pose a serious risk, section 20(4) requires the relevant extracts, setting out the risk, the risk assessment and the protective and preventive measures, to be brought to the attention of those affected.

Every employee does not need their own copy. The HSA's guidance says the statement must be accessible to all employees, with the parts relevant to each job brought to their attention, and that ready access to an electronic copy is acceptable. There is no legal requirement to display it on a wall. Section 20(7) does require a copy, or the relevant extract, to be kept available for inspection at or near every place of work it relates to while work is being carried out there. A contractor with operatives across twenty sites needs a way of meeting that at each one.

05

Review, and showing the statement is followed

Section 20(5) requires the employer to review the safety statement, taking the risk assessment into account, where there has been a significant change in the matters it refers to, where there is another reason to believe it is no longer valid, or where an inspector directs that it be amended within 30 days, and then to amend it as appropriate. The HSA recommends reviewing it at least annually as well. Changes that should prompt a review include new work activities, new equipment or chemicals, a change in organisational structure or in the workforce, new technical knowledge, new legislation or standards, and a review of policy after an incident.

The HSA's guidance on reviewing asks questions that a document alone cannot answer: were the safety and health measures identified actually implemented in practice, was the planned progress achieved, and what new measures followed any incidents? It recommends looking at the records that have been kept, such as accident and incident reports, training records, inspection and audit reports and maintenance logs, and consulting safety representatives and others affected.

It describes two components of measuring performance:

• Active monitoring, before things go wrong: routine inspections and checks to see that standards are being maintained and that the objectives set are being achieved.
• Reactive monitoring, after things go wrong: investigating injuries, illness, bullying complaints, property damage and near misses, and specifying why performance fell short.

Active monitoring is where the safety statement meets the building. Most statements for offices, schools, nursing homes and hotels promise routine control measures: spills cleaned promptly, fire exits kept clear, first aid kits stocked, a daily walk-round by the caretaker or duty manager. Each of those is a check someone should be doing, and the record of it is what shows an inspector, after an accident, that the statement was being implemented. The HSA says inspectors investigating an accident will scrutinise the risk assessments, the safety statement, the procedures and the work practices.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

Most safety statements fail in the gap between what is written and what happens. The statement says fire exits are checked daily; the check sheet on the back of the door is ticked for the whole week on Monday morning, or stopped in June when the caretaker changed. It says spills are cleaned promptly; nobody can say when the one at the entrance was reported or who dealt with it. It names a person for each task; the person left last year. Reading back through the folder, nobody sees the gap until an inspector or an accident investigation asks for the record.

SiteClara records the routine checks a safety statement promises, at the place they are done. A printed QR poster, with an NFC tag behind it if staff should tap, sits at each location that has a check: the fire exit, the first aid point, the plant room, the washroom, the loading bay. Staff scan or tap with their own phone, with no app to install, and see the checks due there. They mark each one done, or explain what stopped them, with a photo when one is asked for, and the time and the named person are recorded as it happens. A hazard found on a round, such as a blocked exit or a damaged stair nosing, is reported there and stays on the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, and records the reason a check was missed. Each day they review the checks and photos and approve a report that goes to nominated management or client contacts the next morning, showing what was reported, what was completed and what is still open. When the statement is reviewed, that gives the employer a record of active monitoring made at the time, rather than one reconstructed for the review.

07

Questions people ask

What is in a safety statement?

Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 lists six things it must specify: the hazards identified and the risks assessed; the protective and preventive measures taken and the resources provided; the plans and procedures for an emergency or serious and imminent danger; the duties of employees; the names, and where applicable the job titles, of the people responsible for tasks under it; and the arrangements for safety representatives and consultation with employees. It is based on the written risk assessment that section 19 requires, and it outlines how safety, health and welfare will be secured and managed in that workplace.

How do you make a safety statement?

The HSA's safety statement and risk assessment guidance sets out six steps: draw up a health and safety policy, signed at senior management level; identify the hazards; carry out a risk assessment; decide what precautions are needed; record the findings in the safety statement; and review the programme and update it as necessary. It says preparation "should be simple and straightforward" for small and medium-sized businesses, and that consultation should always take place with employees, including safety representatives, "as they are the ones doing the work and dealing with the hazards on a daily basis".

Is there a template for a safety statement?

Yes, for many workplaces. BeSMART.ie, the HSA's free online tool, produces safety statements and risk assessments for more than 300 business types, and the HSA's safety statement and risk assessment guidance says its templates are acceptable "if your work sector is covered and the templates are filled out correctly". The same guidance points to a risk assessment template in A Guide to Risk Assessments and Safety Statements. A generic statement copied from another business will not do: the HSA says an employer using one "would not be compliant with Sections 19 and 20 of the 2005 Act".

What is a good safety statement?

One written for your own workplace and put into practice. The HSA's safety statement and risk assessment guidance says a comprehensive safety statement, "if properly implemented, is a practical tool for reducing accidents and ill health at work", that it "needs to be relevant at all times", and that implementing it "should be an integral part of everyday operations". A statement that names the people responsible, is brought to employees' attention and is reviewed after significant changes keeps the safety measures it describes the ones actually in place.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

The law is section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, read with sections 19 and 21, on the Irish Statute Book. The HSA's safety statement and risk assessment page answers the common questions in detail, and A Guide to Risk Assessments and Safety Statements includes a sample risk assessment form, sample assessments for slips, trips and falls and for chemicals, and an example policy. BeSMART.ie, the HSA's free online tool, produces a workplace-specific safety statement for the business types it covers.

For your own safety statement, check that:

• it is based on a written risk assessment of your own place of work, not a generic template;
• it covers everything section 20(2) lists, including emergency plans and the names of the people responsible for each task;
• the policy declaration is signed at senior management level and dated;
• in a shared building, you have exchanged the relevant extracts with the other employers and agreed who does each check in the common areas;
• every employee has had it brought to their attention in the last year, and every new starter at induction, in a language they understand;
• contractors and others exposed to specific risks have been given the relevant extracts;
• a copy or extract is available at or near every place of work it covers;
• it has been reviewed in the last year, and after every significant change or incident;
• the routine checks it promises are recorded as they are done, by whom and when, with missed checks and their reasons.