Basic Paperwork for Health and Safety

Small businesses often ask about the legal documentation required in relation to health and safety.

This page is our guide to the basic paperwork required to meet health and safety obligations.

Health and Safety Policy

If you employ five or more people, you must have a written Health and Safety Policy. This contains your statement of general policy on health and safety at work and arrangements for putting this into practice.

Although not legally required to do so, businesses with less than five employees should also consider having such a policy as good practice.

A written policy could prove useful if visited by an enforcing officer.

For further guidance, see our page on Health and Safety Policies.

Risk Assessments

You should strengthen your Health and Safety Policy by carrying out risk assessments of your workplace – careful examinations of what could cause harm, and who might be affected.

Again, if you have more than five employees, you must record the significant findings of this exercise.

For further guidance, see our page on Risk Assessment.

Registration with enforcing authorities

Any small business that has employees must register with the enforcing authority using a special form.

Your enforcing authority for health and safety is determined by the type of business you conduct.

HSE-enforced premises
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) enforce premises such as factories, building sites, mines, farms, fairgrounds, quarries, railways, chemical plants, offshore and nuclear installations, schools and hospitals.

Your nearest office can be found in the telephone directory, and a map/list of all HSE regions is available on the HSE website.

→ Find your nearest HSE office (external site)

To register with the HSE you need to complete form F9 (Notice of occupation) or OSR1 (see below).

→ Visit the HSE registration forms download page (external site)

Local Authority enforced premises
The Local Authority Environmental Health Departments enforce premises such as retailing, some warehouses, most offices, hotels and catering, sports, leisure, consumer services and places of worship. Details of your local authority can be found in your local telephone directory.

To register with your Local Authority you need to complete form OSR1 (Notice of employment of persons in office, shop or certain railway premises; including catering establishments and staff canteens).

Registration forms can be downloaded from the HSE website:

→ Visit the HSE registration forms download page (external site)

If you are unsure which one to register with, please contact our Adviceline on 0800 019 2211.

Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance

You must, by law, obtain and display this insurance certificate if you have one or more employees. Further information is given in the free leaflet Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance Act 1969 – A guide for employers – HSE 40.

→ Download or order Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance Act 1969 – A guide for employers HSE40REV1 (external site)

Although not a legal requirement, we would recommend that you consider Public Liability Insurance too, particularly if you are working with the public or in other people's premises.

Voluntary sector organisations and management committees

Management committees should appoint one of their members to be responsible for health and safety matters. It is also important that management committees set out their expectations of senior managers who have health and safety responsibilities and the arrangements for keeping the committee informed and advised of all relevant matters concerning performance.

The committee needs to accept, formally and publicly, its collective role in providing health and safety leadership within the organisation. The Health and Safety Policy documentation needs to reflect this.

To assist with their duties, each organisation must appoint competent individuals. Employers are solely responsible for ensuring that those they appoint are competent to carry out the tasks they are assigned, and are given adequate information and support.

In making decisions on whom to appoint, employers themselves need to know and understand the work involved, the principles of risk assessment and prevention, and current legislation and health and safety standards. Employers should ensure that anyone they appoint is capable of applying the above to whatever task they are assigned.

All workers and volunteers must:

co-operate with supervisors and managers on health and safety matters
not interfere with anything provided to safeguard their health and safety
take reasonable care of their own health and safety
report all health and safety concerns to an appropriate person.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has produced a useful free guide for those with directorial responsibilities, including management committees:

→ Download or order the leaflet Leading in Health and Safety – Leadership action for directors and board members (external site)

Information for employees

Employers must inform their employees about certain aspects of health and safety law and how it applies to them.

The easiest way to do this is to display the poster Health and Safety Law – What you should know. An individual leaflet is also available. Both can be ordered online from HSE Books:

→ Download or order the leaflet Health and Safety Law – What you should know (external site)

→ Order the poster Health and Safety Law –- What you should know (external site)

There are several boxes on the Health and Safety Law poster which should be filled in:

Employee Representative
The name and contact details of the person who has been appointed or elected by the employees to represent them on issues relating to health and safety. If no one has been appointed or elected by the employees, and the employer consults directly with the employees, then this box is left blank.

→ Read more on Consultation with Employees

Management Representative
Regulation 7 of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) states that every employer shall appoint one or more persons to assist him or her in undertaking the measures needed to comply with the requirements imposed upon him or her by the regulations. This box is for the person appointed by the management for Health and Safety, i.e. a health and safety adviser or officer.

Enforcing Authority
The enforcing authority for health and safety depends on the type of business you conduct. The Health and Safety Executive enforce over premises such as factories, building sites, mines, farms, fairgrounds, quarries, railways, chemical plant, offshore and nuclear installations, schools and hospitals.

Contact details for local HSE offices can be found online via the HSE Offices Page (external site).

The Local Authority Environmental Health Departments enforce over premises such as retailing, some warehouses, most offices, hotels and catering, sports, leisure, consumer services and places of worship.

Contact details for local authorities can be found in the relevant local telephone directory.

Foreign workers/workers who do not understand English well

Employers must consider how to communicate essential information to workers who do not speak or read English, or who may have difficulty understanding written or spoken English.

Employers may need to deliver information through a translator or use visual presentations, rather than delivering written or oral instructions. Some employers are making more use of photographs and diagrams in work instructions, etc.

Employers should also consider whether workplace safety signs and signals can be clearly understood and make changes where appropriate.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides many of their publications in multiple languages. A full list of available publications can be viewed via the HSE's Other Languages pages (external site).

If someone wishes to speak to them in their own language, the HSE also offers a telephone interpreting service (external site).

Accident book

Details of all incidents, injuries and dangerous occurrences must be recorded in an accident book. A new version of the accident book was introduced in 2003 to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The HSE Accident Book (BI510) is available from HSE Books and can be ordered online:

→ Order Accident Book BI510 (external site)

For further guidance, see our section on Recording and Reporting Accidents, Ill Health and Near Misses.

Your questions on basic paperwork for health and safety

→ Who is responsible for health and safety in voluntary organisations?

→ What health and safety information do I need to give my foreign workers?

Further information on basic paperwork

Email your query now
Call our Adviceline on 0800 019 2211

Free resources from Healthy Working Lives
Links below are to publications pages giving options to download these resources:

Free and priced guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Links below are to publications pages on the HSE Books website giving options to order or download the following resources:

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