Health and Safety

Executive

Managing risk in catering and

hospitality: Your responsibilities
HSE information sheet Catering Information Sheet No 25

Introduction Effective management of health and safety can best

be achieved by:
This information sheet was produced by the
Hospitality and Catering Industry Liaison Forum, ■■ realising it is an integral and essential part of
which has members from trade and professional business management;
associations, unions and enforcement authorities. ■■ identifying the main risk areas and taking action
Members’ associations are free to reproduce and on those while disregarding trivial risks;
distribute this guidance to catering establishments. ■■ setting yourself clear targets, for example to train
The guidance is issued by the Health and staff and clearly allocate responsibilities;
Safety Executive. ■■ supervising adequately;
■■ consulting staff at all stages.
Health and safety law applies to all businesses, no
matter how small. As an employer or self-employed
What are the main risks?
person, you are responsible for health and safety in
your business. The nature and extent of the risks in Individual workplaces exhibit their own patterns of
each workplace will vary, as will the work required risk, but the main causes of accidents and ill health
to manage them. Sensible risk management is about in the catering industry are:
managing real risk by implementing sensible and
■■ slips, trips and falls;
proportionate precautions and disregarding the trivial.
■■ lifting and manual handling;
This guidance is aimed at employers and those who ■■ contact with hot surfaces and harmful substances;
want some basic information on what to do to make ■■ cuts;
sure their catering and hospitality business complies ■■ dermatitis;
with health and safety law. ■■ upper limb disorders.

This guidance is only about health and safety. You can prevent most accidents through good
It is not intended to cover food safety or hygiene management, supervision and effective training,
requirements. which makes accident prevention no different from
any other aspect of running a successful business.
Why is health and safety important in Thought and planning applied to those areas of
catering and hospitality? catering where the risks are highest will help you to
prevent accidents and reduce costs. It will also show
Businesses in the catering and hospitality sector
enforcement officers that you are striving to comply
report many major injuries to HSE every year.
with health and safety law.
Beyond the obvious human costs, accidents also
cost money and time – people off work, material costs
and damage to buildings, equipment or product.

It is important to manage health and safety because it:

■■ prevents injury and ill health to your business’s

most important resource, people;
■■ contributes to a content and productive
workforce;
■■ makes economic sense by reducing accidents
and their costs.
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What do you need to do? for chemicals and equipment, as they can be very
helpful in spelling out the hazards.
Summary of employer’s duties
■■ Some workers may have particular requirements,
As an employer you have a general duty to ensure the for example new and young workers, migrant
health and safety of your employees and others workers, new or expectant mothers, people with
affected by your business. In particular, you must: disabilities, temporary workers, contractors,
homeworkers and lone workers.
■■ provide and maintain safe plant and equipment;
■■ ensure a safe and healthy working environment; Having identified the hazards, you then have to decide
■■ provide adequate welfare facilities, such as toilets how likely it is that harm will occur. Risk is a part of
and hot and cold running water; everyday life and you are not expected to eliminate all
■■ provide suitable information, instruction and risks. What you must do is make sure you know
training for your workers; about the main risks and the things you need to do to
■■ have safe working procedures; manage them responsibly. Generally, you should do
■■ ensure adequate supervision of your staff; everything reasonably practicable to protect people
■■ prevent or control exposure to hazardous from harm.
substances and loud noise.
Make a record of your significant findings – the
hazards, how people might be harmed by them
Risk assessment
and what you have in place to control the risks.
As part of managing the health and safety of your Any record produced should be simple and focused
business, you must control the risks in your on controls. If you have fewer than five employees
workplace. To do this you should think about what you do not have to write anything down. But it is useful
might cause harm to people and decide whether you to do this so you can review it at a later date, for
are doing enough to prevent that. example if something changes. If you have five or more
employees, you are required by law to write it down.
This is known as risk assessment and it is something
you are required by law to carry out. If you have Few workplaces stay the same, so it makes sense to
fewer than five employees you don’t have to write review what you are doing on an ongoing basis.
anything down.
More guidance on risk assessment can be found at
Risk assessment is about identifying and taking www.hse.gov.uk/risk.
sensible and proportionate measures to control the
You can find a risk assessment template,
risks in your workplace, not about creating huge
example risk assessments and more online tools
amounts of paperwork. You are probably already
at www.hse.gov.uk/risk/index.htm.
taking steps to protect your employees, but your risk
assessment will help you decide whether you should Take a look at the example risk assessment for
be doing more. catering (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/foodprep.
htm). It shows what a completed risk assessment
Think about how accidents and ill health could
might look like for your business. You can use these
happen and concentrate on real risks – those that
as a guide when doing your own.
are most likely and which will cause the most harm.
The following might help: Hazards and other issues in the workplace you may
need to consider in your assessment include:
■■ Think about your workplace activities, processes
and the substances used that could injure your ■■ slips and trips;
employees or harm their health. ■■ contact with hazardous substances, such as
■■ Ask your employees what they think the hazards cleaning fluids;
are, as they may notice things that are not ■■ manual handling of loads;
obvious to you and may have some good ideas ■■ work at height;
on how to control the risks. ■■ maintenance work, for example work which may
■■ Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets disturb asbestos;

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Executive

■■ electricity; workplace and involving them in making decisions

■■ gas – natural and LPG; shows them that you take their health and safety
■■ young or vulnerable workers; seriously.
■■ temperature and ventilation;
In a very small business, you might choose to consult
■■ transport and pedestrian safety.
your employees directly. Alternatively, you might
consult through a trade union health and safety
Competent advice
representative, or an employee representative chosen
You must appoint someone competent to help you by your employees. As an employer, you cannot
meet your health and safety duties. A competent decide who will be the representative.
person is someone with the necessary skills,
knowledge and experience to manage health and Other relevant duties
safety. You could appoint yourself, one or more of
■■ Provide suitable personal protective equipment
your workers, someone from outside your business
where necessary to protect employees against
– or any combination of those.
risks you cannot control by other means.
You probably manage most aspects of your business ■■ Carry out health surveillance where appropriate
yourself, or with the help of your staff. But if you are (eg for dermatitis risks, if present).
not confident of your ability to manage all health ■■ Set up emergency procedures, including those
and safety in-house, you may need some external for temporary workers (in catering these are only
help or advice. Deciding what help you need is very likely to be for fire and gas leaks).
important. Unless you are clear about what you want, ■■ Coordinate any procedures (ie emergency
you probably won’t get the help you need. procedures) and work safely with others (for
catering, these are likely to be landlords, other
Your health and safety policy businesses in multi-occupancy sites, maintenance
staff and catering engineers).
Describing how you will manage health and safety in
■■ Make provision for first aid for employees and
your business will let your staff and others know about
facilities relative to your size and risks to cover the
your commitment to health and safety. This will be
first-aid needs of your employees.
your health and safety policy. It should clearly say who
■■ Display specified safety signs for remaining risks.
does what, when and how. If you have five or more
■■ Have details available of your employers’
employees, you must have a written policy. The policy
liability insurance.
does not need to be complicated or time-consuming.
■■ Record and report some work-related accidents,
To help you, HSE has created a template at
dangerous occurrences and cases where
www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/write.htm which
employees have contracted an occupational
you can download and complete.
disease. Full lists of the types of injuries,
dangerous occurrences, gas incidents
Training
and occupational diseases that must be
As an employer, you must consider the health and reported under RIDDOR can be found at
safety training needs of your employees, including www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/guidance.htm.
new recruits, young workers, part-timers and ■■ If you employ anyone, you must display the health
temporary or agency staff. You must also consider and safety law poster, or provide each worker with
how you will train employees who do not have English a copy of the equivalent pocket card. You must
as their first language. display the poster where your workers can easily
read it. If you wish to do so, you can also add
Consult your employees details of any employee safety representative or
health and safety contacts.
Consultation is a two-way process, allowing staff to
raise concerns and influence decisions on the
management of health and safety. Your employees are
often the best people to understand risks in the

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 Health and Safety
Executive

Summary of duties Further information

Employees, the self-employed and landlords HSE has produced a suite of catering information
sheets dealing with specific health and safety
Employees must look after their own and others’
topics in the catering and hospitality industry.
health and safety, cooperate with their employer
These are available on the HSE website at
and not misuse health and safety equipment.
www.hse.gov.uk/catering/index.htm.
A self-employed person must ensure their own
See www.hse.gov.uk/catering/risk.htm for
health and safety, so far as reasonably practicable,
examples of risk assessments for the catering
and ensure they don’t put others at risk.
and hospitality industry.
A landlord or host employer in control of the premises
HSE’s website provides information, as well as
must take reasonable steps to ensure that the
a number of free leaflets and information sheets,
premises and equipment used by others, such as
that will be useful to help manage risks and comply
contract caterers, are safe and without risk to health,
with legal requirements, particularly Health and
so far as reasonably practicable. The extent of this
safety made simple: The basics for your business
duty will depend on the extent of control over the
(www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/index.htm)
premises and the risks present.
and the catering and hospitality webpages.

The role of enforcement officers For information about health and safety, or to report
inconsistencies or inaccuracies in this guidance,
In most catering situations, local authority
visit www.hse.gov.uk/. You can view HSE guidance
enforcement officers are responsible for enforcing
online and order priced publications from the website.
health and safety law. Inspectors from HSE look after
HSE priced publications are also available
health and safety in catering facilities in institutions
from bookshops.
such as hospitals, schools etc. The role of the
enforcement officer is not just to enforce the law, This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety
but also to promote health and safety, give advice Executive. Following the guidance is not compulsory,
on the law and how to comply with it and advise on unless specifically stated, and you are free to take
other sources of information – for example, published other action. But if you do follow the guidance
and web-based guidance available from HSE. you will normally be doing enough to comply with
the law. Health and safety inspectors seek to
secure compliance with the law and may refer to
this guidance.

This document is available at

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cais25.htm.

© Crown copyright. If you wish to reuse this

information visit www.hse.gov.uk/copyright.htm for
details. First published 04/13.

Published by the Health and Safety Executive CAIS25(rev1) 07/17 Page 4 of 4