The legislation covering employers legal obligations are is the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981.
These require employers to:
- provide suitable first-aid equipment;
- provide suitable facilities;
- provide suitable personnel; and
…to enable immediate first aid to an employee that gets injured or becomes ill at work.
This means that – aside from the training requirements (below) – you need to have a suitably stocked first aid box, a person in charge of first aid arrangements (an “appointed person”) and information for employees about first aid.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is empowered under the Regulations to approve which personnel are ‘suitable’ for these purposes. ‘Suitable’ personnel are those trained in either:
1. First Aid at Work; or
2. Emergency First Aid at Work.
First Aid should be available at all times the workplace is in use.
You may also require more than one first aider, depending upon the size of your business or organisation. The following tool will help you to determine how many first aiders you may need:
