Health and Safety

Vcrabbe

Hello
My family and I run a wholesale business in Lancashire with nine employees. We currently contract out our health and safety to a well known company and I was shocked to find out that we're paying them £160 per month. I've never seen anyone from there but apparently they visit once a year. Do we even need to use a third party? I've looked briefly on the government website and it looks like we can keep our employees safe and conform to all regulations to keep the business safe, within the law and protected from litigation should the worse happen by doing it ourselves. Does anyone do it themselves?

paddyrg

There's no reason you have to use a third party, especially if you're not getting good value. Even with that third party you're still liable as director, so maybe pay for a consultant to come in a half day a year to keep you up to date on what needs doing but almost all of it is really sensible stuff.

Your insurer may have opinions also, btw.

Savvy_Sue

check what the terms of your current contract are: if you're signed up for a set term, you may need to give notice at the right time or you'll find yourself tied in for another set term. But while you're doing that, it might be worth getting alternative quotes and thinking about how you'd meet your legal responsibilities in all areas: you do need someone on site who is absolutely 'on top' of H&S - but then I'd say you'd need that anyway, even if you're contracting out.

There is a lot of common sense involved, but it seems to me there's also a lot of record keeping involved, eg if you use fork lift trucks and / or cherry pickers, then not only ensuring that everyone has received the necessary basic training, but also that you have evidence they've received it, and evidence that they have refreshers as necessary, and evidence that everyone knows about any updates to procedures, eg if you institute a one way system within the warehouse. And so on.

scoly

Vcrabbe wrote: »

Hello
My family and I run a wholesale business in Lancashire with nine employees. We currently contract out our health and safety to a well known company and I was shocked to find out that we're paying them £160 per month. I've never seen anyone from there but apparently they visit once a year. Do we even need to use a third party? I've looked briefly on the government website and it looks like we can keep our employees safe and conform to all regulations to keep the business safe, within the law and protected from litigation should the worse happen by doing it ourselves. Does anyone do it themselves?

I suspect I do not fully understand your question.

But on the face of it, you & your family must know what you originally contracted the supplier to perform. Presumably you made the decision before order placement as to whether or not those services to be provided were required, and whether or not you could carry out those tasks yourself
(or that you preferred to employ the services of another to free yourself up to carry out other tasks more beneficial to the business)

It may be you need to speak with the rest of your family rather than anonymous strangers on an internet forum if you do not understand the history of why this supplier was originally contracted.

Of course, if the supplier is not performing to contract, then that is a somewhat different issue and something you and your family need to take action over.

ComicGeek

Vcrabbe wrote: »

Hello
My family and I run a wholesale business in Lancashire with nine employees. We currently contract out our health and safety to a well known company and I was shocked to find out that we're paying them £160 per month. I've never seen anyone from there but apparently they visit once a year. Do we even need to use a third party? I've looked briefly on the government website and it looks like we can keep our employees safe and conform to all regulations to keep the business safe, within the law and protected from litigation should the worse happen by doing it ourselves. Does anyone do it themselves?

Note that just by paying an external consultant you are not reducing your own company's liability for health and safety. You are definitely not contracting out your health and safety, you still need to keep your employees safe and conform to all regulations - it's just that the external consultant 'may' be better aware of any changes to legislation and 'may' avoid common mistakes.

£1920 per year for an annual visit might sound high, but what do they do for that? Site inspections, reviews of procedures and documents? Risk assessments? You need to get a handle on what they actually provide for this, and then see whether you can do the same yourself.

Lots of good training courses out there if you want to take this on yourself - but you need to review whether the costs of doing this all yourself, and all the time taken, is worth saving the £160 per month.

dacouch

You may find your Insurers insisted on such a firm or you having your own H&S system in place