Health and Safety Statement: What to Include and Why It Matters in the UK

If you run a small business, health and safety can feel like a “big company” problem - until the day something goes wrong.

A solid health and safety statement is one of the simplest ways to show you take your legal duties seriously, set expectations for your team, and reduce the risk of accidents, enforcement action, and costly disputes.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what a health and safety statement is, when you need one, what to include, and how to make it practical (not just paperwork that lives in a drawer).

What Is A Health And Safety Statement (And Why Should Small Businesses Care)?

A health and safety statement is a written document that sets out your business’s commitment to managing health and safety risks. In plain terms, it explains:

• what your business is trying to achieve when it comes to health and safety;
• who is responsible for what;
• how you’ll manage risks in practice.

For small businesses, the “why it matters” is very practical:

• It helps you comply with the law. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, you have duties to protect employees and others affected by your work (like customers, contractors, visitors, and the public).
• It sets clear expectations. If staff understand the rules and processes, you’re far less likely to have avoidable incidents.
• It protects your business. If a regulator investigates, a well-written statement (backed by action) can help show you’ve taken reasonable steps.
• It makes risk management easier. When you grow, hire, change premises, or add new services, you’ve got a baseline to work from.

Think of it as part of your legal “foundations” - like having an Employment Contract in place before you bring someone on board.

Do You Legally Need A Health And Safety Statement In The UK?

In the UK, the requirement to write down your health and safety policy (including a statement) is linked to headcount.

Generally speaking, if you employ five or more people, you’re expected to have a written health and safety policy. That written policy usually starts with a health and safety statement as the “policy statement” section.

Even if you have fewer than five employees, it’s still often a smart move to create a written health and safety statement because:

• your legal duties still apply (even with 1 employee);
• some clients and landlords may ask for it before working with you;
• it supports training and onboarding;
• it helps you stay consistent as you grow.

Important: if you do have a written policy, you also need to make sure it’s brought to your employees’ attention and they can access it. And a statement is not a substitute for risk assessments, training, supervision, maintenance, and safe systems of work - but it’s a great starting point, and it ties everything together.

What Should A Health And Safety Statement Include?

Most businesses structure a health and safety statement as part of a wider health and safety policy. But even if you keep things short, your statement should be clear, tailored, and usable.

Below are the key elements small businesses should consider including.

1. Your Policy Statement (Your Commitment)

This is where you explain your overall approach. Keep it short and specific. Typically, it covers your commitment to:

• providing a safe and healthy workplace;
• preventing accidents and work-related ill health;
• complying with relevant health and safety laws;
• consulting with employees on health and safety matters;
• reviewing and improving your controls over time.

A common mistake is writing something so broad it could apply to any business. A better approach is to mention your actual working environment (for example, “office-based work with occasional site visits” or “customer-facing retail premises”).

2. Responsibilities (Who Does What)

This section matters more than people realise. When responsibilities are unclear, safety tasks get missed - and that’s where problems start.

For a small business, you might set out responsibilities like:

• Owner/Director: overall responsibility for health and safety, ensuring risk assessments are done, providing resources.
• Manager/Supervisor: day-to-day checks, enforcing safe procedures, reporting issues.
• Employees: following training, using equipment properly, reporting hazards and incidents.
• Contractors: working safely, cooperating with your site rules, providing their own risk assessments where relevant.

If you have people using work devices or systems, you may also want clear rules on appropriate use and safe working expectations (especially where there are security and wellbeing issues). This often sits alongside a broader Acceptable Use Policy.

3. How You Manage Risks (The “Arrangements”)

This is the practical part: what you actually do to keep people safe. It’s often called your “arrangements”. It doesn’t have to be long, but it should reflect your reality.

Depending on your business, this might include:

• Risk assessments: when you do them, who updates them, where they’re stored.
• Training and induction: how new starters are trained, refresher training, who delivers it.
• Accident reporting: what staff should do if there’s an incident, how you record it, and when an incident may need to be reported under RIDDOR.
• First aid: where kits are kept, who the first aiders are (if any), how supplies are replenished.
• Fire safety: evacuation routes, assembly points, fire drills, equipment checks.
• Equipment safety: how you check, maintain, and replace work equipment.
• Manual handling: rules for lifting, moving stock, using trolleys, etc.
• Workplace wellbeing: steps to reduce stress where relevant (especially for high-pressure roles).

If your team uses display screen equipment (DSE), a simple but effective arrangement is covering workstation setup and breaks for office-based staff.

4. Consultation And Communication

Health and safety works best when it’s not just “top-down”. Your statement should explain how you’ll involve staff, for example:

• regular check-ins or team meetings where safety issues can be raised;
• a way to report hazards (even a shared email address can work);
• encouraging near-miss reporting (not just accidents).

Also think about communication with contractors and visitors - especially if you operate from a premises where others come and go.

5. Review Dates And Updates

Your health and safety statement should be reviewed regularly and updated when your business changes. Common triggers include:

• moving premises;
• introducing new equipment, products, or processes;
• hiring new staff or changing roles;
• after an incident or near-miss;
• changes in law or official guidance.

A quick win is to include a “last reviewed” date and “next review” date at the end of the statement. It shows you’re treating health and safety as an ongoing process.

Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make With Health And Safety Statements

It’s normal to feel unsure about where to start - particularly if you’re juggling a hundred other priorities. But some common mistakes can make a statement less useful (and sometimes more risky).

Using A Generic Template Without Tailoring It

Templates can help you get going, but a health and safety statement that doesn’t match what you actually do is a problem.

If something goes wrong and the investigation shows you “committed” to controls you don’t actually have in place, that mismatch can cause headaches. It’s similar to using generic legal templates in other parts of your business - for example, with customer terms or supplier agreements - where details matter.

Writing It But Not Implementing It

A statement doesn’t protect you if it’s ignored. If it says staff get training, make sure training happens and is recorded. If it says hazards are reported, make sure people know how.

Not Assigning Clear Responsibility

In small businesses, “everyone does it” often means “no one does it”. If you don’t have a dedicated H&S manager, that’s fine - but be specific about who owns which tasks.

Forgetting About Non-Employees

Your duties don’t stop at employees. Depending on your business, you may need to consider:

• customers in a shop, café, salon, or studio;
• clients visiting your office;
• delivery drivers collecting or dropping off goods;
• contractors working on-site.

If you operate CCTV for security or safety reasons, it’s worth making sure your approach is lawful and documented - especially where staff are affected. This often overlaps with privacy and workplace monitoring compliance, so having a clear Privacy Policy and internal rules can help keep things consistent.

How To Put A Health And Safety Statement Into Practice (Not Just “Tick The Box”)

The best health and safety statement is one your business can actually follow.

Here are practical ways to make it work day-to-day.

Keep It Accessible

Staff should be able to find it easily. Depending on your setup, that might mean:

• saving it in a shared drive or staff intranet;
• keeping a printed copy at your premises;
• including it in onboarding packs.

Train People On The Parts That Matter

You don’t need to run a legal seminar. But you do want employees to understand the rules that actually affect their work.

This is where having good onboarding documentation and consistent employment paperwork makes a difference. Your Staff Handbook is often the natural place to house policies and link them to day-to-day conduct.

Link It To Your Other Workplace Policies

Health and safety often overlaps with other areas of legal compliance, including:

• data protection: if you collect incident reports that include personal data or medical information, you need to handle that carefully under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018;
• disciplinary procedures: if someone repeatedly refuses to follow safety procedures, you may need to manage it as a conduct issue;
• contractor management: if you engage freelancers or contractors, you still need clear expectations around safe working.

It can also be helpful to have a clear Workplace Policy framework so policies don’t live in separate, inconsistent documents.

Record What You Do

If an incident happens, being able to show what you did (and when) is often as important as having a written statement.

Examples of useful records include:

• training attendance notes;
• equipment inspection logs;
• accident and near-miss reports (and, where applicable, RIDDOR reports);
• maintenance invoices;
• risk assessment reviews.

This doesn’t need to be complicated - but it should be consistent.

Do You Need Legal Help With Health And Safety Documentation?

A health and safety statement is a great starting point, but it usually works best as part of a broader compliance picture.

For example, if your business is hiring staff, you’ll often want your documentation to line up across:

• employment contracts and onboarding documents;
• policies (including health and safety, technology use, privacy, and conduct);
• data protection compliance for staff and customer information.

If you collect and store information about staff incidents, illness, or workplace adjustments, you should be careful about how you handle health-related data. Having proper data protection documentation and processes in place is a must, and a tailored GDPR package can be a practical way to cover the essentials.

Health and safety compliance can also vary significantly depending on what you do. A hair and beauty business has different risk points to a warehouse, and that’s different again from a home-based consultancy.

So while this guide can help you understand what your health and safety statement should cover, it’s worth getting tailored advice to make sure it matches your real risks and legal obligations.

Key Takeaways

• A health and safety statement sets out your commitment to workplace safety, who is responsible, and how risks will be managed in practice.
• Small businesses often need a written health and safety policy if they employ five or more people, but having a statement is still a smart idea even below that threshold - and it should be brought to employees’ attention.
• A good statement usually follows the “statement of intent / organisation / arrangements” structure and includes: a clear policy commitment, responsibilities, practical arrangements (risk assessments, training, reporting), consultation processes, and review dates.
• Common pitfalls include relying on generic templates, failing to implement what you’ve written, and not considering risks to customers, contractors, and visitors.
• Your health and safety statement should fit into your wider legal foundations, including employment documentation and privacy compliance where personal data is involved.

If you’d like help getting your employment documents and workplace policies sorted, you can reach us at 08081347754 or team@sprintlaw.co.uk for a free, no-obligations chat.