Health and safety policy software for UK businesses

What the law requires of your health and safety policy

Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to prepare a written statement of their general policy on health and safety, together with the organisation and arrangements in force for carrying it out, and to bring it to the attention of employees. Businesses with fewer than five employees are exempt from the written requirement, but most still benefit from having one — and many clients and insurers ask to see it regardless.

A compliant policy has three parts: a statement of intent (your commitment, signed and dated by the most senior person), the organisation (who is responsible for what), and the arrangements (the practical systems by which you control risk — risk assessments, training, fire safety, accident reporting, and so on). The policy must be kept up to date and reviewed when circumstances change.

• Statement of intent: your signed, dated commitment to health and safety.
• Organisation: who holds which health and safety responsibilities.
• Arrangements: the practical systems that control risk day to day.
• Written if 5+ employees: a legal requirement under HSWA 1974 s.2(3).
• Kept current: reviewed and updated when people, premises or processes change.

The part that matters most: arrangements that are real, not just written

An inspector or claimant's solicitor is not impressed by a policy that promises risk assessments, training and fire checks you cannot produce. The 'arrangements' section is where most policies fall down — it describes a system that does not actually run. This is exactly where Featherstone Safety Hub earns its place.

The arrangements your policy commits to — risk assessments and COSHH, staff training and inductions, fire safety checks, accident and incident reporting, contractor control — are all delivered and recorded in the Hub. So the moment your policy says 'we assess risks and review them annually', the system behind that statement is live and evidenced, not aspirational.

• Risk assessments & COSHH: the assessments your policy promises, built and reviewed in one place.
• Training & induction: the competence your policy commits to, delivered and recorded.
• Fire & incident management: fire checks and accident reporting that back your policy arrangements.
• Contractors: the contractor controls your policy references, tracked and evidenced.

Store, share and keep your policy current

Your signed policy document lives in the evidence library, with a review date tracked so it never silently goes stale. When you update it, the new version is stored and dated, and the old version is preserved — so you can show what your policy said at any point in time, which matters when defending a historic incident.

Because the policy sits alongside the live arrangements that deliver it, bringing it 'to the attention of employees' is straightforward: the document is in one accessible place, and the training and inductions that communicate it are recorded against each person.

• Versioned storage: keep the current policy and its history with review dates tracked.
• Review reminders: get alerted before the policy review date passes.
• Communicated and evidenced: inductions and training that share the policy are recorded per employee.

Prove your policy is lived, not filed

If the HSE investigates an incident, the question is whether your policy was a real, working system. Featherstone Safety Hub gives you the answer: a dated audit trail of the assessments, training, checks and reviews that put your policy into practice, plus a monthly review that demonstrates ongoing management oversight.

That is the difference between a policy that protects you and a document that exposes you. The words commit you to a standard; the Hub proves you met it.