General health and safety: a practical compliance framework

Key takeaways

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to protect workers and others, so far as is reasonably practicable.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require suitable and sufficient risk assessments and arrangements to manage them.

Employers with five or more staff must have a written health and safety policy and record the significant findings of their risk assessments.

Competent-person appointment, consultation and RIDDOR reporting are core duties that audits look for.

For UK inspection firm owners, compliance managers and supervisors building a practical health and safety management framework across sites, teams and subcontractors. It is UK-focused and not legal advice.

General health and safety is the framework all the specific regimes sit inside. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets the overarching duty, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 set out how to manage it day to day. Get the framework right and every individual discipline becomes easier to run.

The general duty

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, employers must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees and anyone else affected by the work. It is a broad, active duty, not a box you tick once and forget.

Risk assessment and arrangements

Carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments
Record the significant findings (required with five or more employees)
Put arrangements in place to plan, organise, control, monitor and review
Review assessments whenever the work, site or team changes

Competent person and consultation

Appoint one or more competent people to help you meet your duties, and consult your employees, or their representatives, on matters that affect their health and safety. Both are duties an inspector will look for, and both should be documented rather than assumed.

Reporting and records

Certain injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences must be reported under RIDDOR, and the records kept. A written health and safety policy is required where you employ five or more people. Keep training, induction and consultation records so you can show the framework is real, not just on paper.

Running the framework on CertFlow

CertFlow keeps risk assessments, competence records, scheduled inspections and remedial actions in one place, so the management framework the law expects is visible and exportable rather than scattered across folders and inboxes.

What inspectors commonly see

Risk assessments missing, or not reviewed after the work changed

No documented competent-person appointment

No written health and safety policy where five or more people are employed

Accidents not investigated, or reportable ones not notified under RIDDOR

Training, induction and consultation records incomplete

Common mistakes

Holding a policy but not turning it into inspections, actions and review records.

Recording risk assessments once and not updating them when the work changes.

Assuming competence rather than documenting training, experience and supervision.

Not investigating near misses or learning from completed corrective actions.

Keeping contractor, induction and consultation records outside the main audit trail.

Records to keep

Health and safety policy and review history where required.

Risk assessments, inspection records and corrective actions.

Competent-person appointment and support arrangements.

Training, induction, toolbox talk and consultation records.

Accident, near-miss, investigation and RIDDOR records where relevant.