Whether you own, manage or just work at a business, one of your goals is likely to be health and safety at work. There’s something each of us can do to ensure we go home as intact as when we started the day. We can labour towards health and safety at work one step at a time. Here are seven steps to a safe and healthy workplace:

1. Appreciate how a protected and healthy workplace benefits employees, their relatives, commerce, and the society.
2. Understand your responsibilities for keeping a safe and healthy workplace.
3. Work out a system for organising health and safety efforts.
4. Become acquainted with the laws and regulations for the work you do.
5. Deal with specific workplace hazards and hold regular safety meetings.
6. Create a safety culture with shared respect and open exchange of ideas.
7. Get help.

The Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 is the basis of British health and safety law. The responsibilities that businesses have toward their workforce and members of the public are qualified in the Health and Safety at Work Act by the standard of “so far as is reasonably practicable.” To put it simply, health and safety is about preventing harm to people.

For many workplaces, despite accepted principles, health and safety is not too complex and needs only a little time. Companies have been dealing with health and safety for a number of years now because of the variety of regulations that exist. Fire safety is covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which replaced the Fire Precautions Act 1971 in October 2006.

Objectives of the Health and Safety at Work Act

The Health and Safety at Work Act seeks to:

• Secure the health, safety and welfare of persons at work
  
• Protect other persons such as customers, service providers, etc. against risks to health and safety arising out of or in connection with the activities of people at work
  
• Controlling the keeping and use of explosive or highly flammable or otherwise dangerous substances, and generally preventing the unlawful acquisition, possession and use of such substances, and
  
• Controlling the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances from premises of any class

Many parts of the health and safety law are rooted in the principle of reducing the probability of someone being harmed. Health and Safety Law is a specific section of criminal law in the UK, and is enforced by the local authority. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act itself requires employers to ensure the safety of people who are not employees.

The general safety precautions that are put into place for staff and volunteers will generally ensure that the Duty of Care (where employers take reasonable care for people’s safety) is fulfilled. One of the largest issues for many workplaces is deciding who will be responsible for health and safety at work. One person could take on some aspects of health and safety in some situations, such as testing the fire alarm and keeping paperwork up-to-date. However, all members of staff and volunteers are responsible for their own health and safety and the safety of others through their own actions and omissions.

Regulations on health and safety at work ensure that the health of the workers is secured at the workplace. In essence these regulations create an obligation for the employer towards his employees. This law calls for the employer to present employees with good working conditions, free from health hazards. Health and Safety Commission along with Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the enforcement of these laws.