Step 4: Write your health and safety policy

A health and safety policy sets out your general approach, objectives and the arrangements you have put in place for managing health and safety in your business. It is a unique document that says who does what, when and how.

If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down.

But how should it look?

A written health and safety policy does not need to be complicated or time consuming. It tells staff and others about your commitment to health and safety, and simply describes how you will implement and monitor your health and safety controls.

Download the Risk Assessment and Policy Template. This template brings together your risk assessment, health and safety policy and record of health and safety arrangements into one document to help get you started and save you time. There is an example health and safety policy to show you what you need to think about and include when preparing your own.

The template can also help you prepare your risk assessment, and there are a range of example risk assessments that can be used as a guide. But, don’t worry if you already have a risk assessment, you will only need to complete the policy part of the template.

A policy is different from a risk assessment.

Policy: general vision and arrangements for the whole business.
Risk assessment: a regular review of how you remove or control hazards, and whether you are doing enough, or if you require further controls.

A policy will only be effective if you and your staff act on it, follow it through and review it on a regular basis.