HR & People
Workplace Pensions: What Employers Must Do
Understand workplace pension duties for UK employers, including automatic enrolment and minimum contributions.
Written Health and Safety Policy: Do You Need One?
Learn when a written health and safety policy is required, what it should include and which duties still apply to businesses with fewer than five employees.
By Callum Sommerton7 October 20263 min read
If you employ five or more people, you must have a written health and safety policy. With fewer than five employees, you still need a policy, but it doesn’t normally have to be written down.
Either way, you must manage workplace risks. The employee threshold changes the paperwork requirement—not your responsibility to keep people safe.
What is a health and safety policy?
It explains how your business manages health and safety: what you’re committed to, who is responsible and what practical arrangements are in place. It should help your team understand how to work safely, raise concerns and respond to problems.
A policy alone doesn’t make your business compliant. You need to follow it in practice.
When must it be written down?
The requirement applies when you have five or more employees. Count people, not full-time equivalents: part-time employees count towards the total. If you have a smaller team, a short written policy is still useful. Clients or tender processes may also ask to see one.
Prepare it before reaching five employees so responsibilities and procedures are already clear.
What should it cover?
HSE recommends three parts:
Statement of intent: your commitment to health and safety and what you aim to achieve. The employer or most senior person should sign and date it.
Responsibilities: who handles particular tasks, such as risk assessments, training, first aid and emergency arrangements.
Arrangements: how you manage risks in practice, including safe working procedures, equipment, accident reporting and staff training.
Keep it proportionate. A small office needs different arrangements from a construction business or care provider.
What duties apply to smaller teams?
Even below the five-employee threshold, employers must assess risks and take appropriate action to control them.
At five or more employees, you must also record the significant findings of your risk assessments. The policy explains your overall approach; risk assessments identify specific hazards and controls.
Office and remote teams have risks too. For staff who use screens daily for continuous periods of an hour or more, display screen equipment rules require workstation assessments and measures to reduce risks.
Employers’ liability insurance is another separate obligation, subject to exemptions. Read whether your business needs employers’ liability insurance.
How do you put it into practice?
Share the policy with employees, explain it during induction and make it easy to access.
Review it regularly and update it when your work, equipment, premises or responsibilities change. Accidents and near misses can also show where arrangements need improving.
If you’re hiring your first employee, our guides to PAYE registration and workplace pensions cover other employer duties.
Can you use a template?
Yes. HSE provides a free example and template. Adapt it to your actual business rather than copying procedures you don’t follow.
FOUNDRS members can also access drafting support through Genie AI, with a one-month free trial, or legal support through Sprintlaw, with 5% off their first fixed-fee project.
For specialist or higher-risk work, get competent health and safety advice as well as help with the wording.
