Health and safety committees

How to set up your health and safety committee

If 2 or more union-appointed health and safety representatives request in writing that you set up a health and safety committee, you must do so within 3 months of the request. Although there is no such requirement if you consult health and safety representatives elected by the workforce, it is good practice to set up a health and safety committee where:

  • you have several health and safety representatives elected by employees
  • you have to consult both union-appointed health and safety representatives and employee-elected representatives

If you and your health and safety representatives want to set up a dedicated health and safety committee, it is useful to agree together:

When setting up your health and safety committee, you can choose to include all employees from the beginning or make the initial arrangements yourself. As consultation is about talking and listening to each other, ideally you should agree arrangements with your employees from the start. It involves them early so gives them a say in how the committee should run.

If you have union-appointed representatives, the union will have written to you to let you know who they are and they may have requested that you set up a committee.

If you do not have union-appointed representatives, or they are not representing everyone, then you will have to arrange elections for your employees so they can choose their representatives. If you want to involve your employees from the beginning of the process, then you can set up a small joint working group to get the committee started. They can help you with arrangements for organising the election.

A working group may only need to meet a few times to get the early arrangements sorted out. The size should be manageable for the aims you want to achieve, usually between 6-8 members but it will depend on your business. It should include at least one, perhaps two senior managers committed to the process of setting up a health and safety committee. They should also be able to speak authoritatively on behalf of the business.

Other members should either be interested volunteers or employees with the right skills or knowledge to help you. The working group can discuss and agree the election process with you. Once you know who your representatives are, then you can start to consult with them about how the health and safety committee will work in practice.

How your committee will work

The best way to set out the basic rules and procedures of how the health and safety committee will work is to have a written constitution on what they will do to manage health, safety and welfare together.

This should include its:

  • purpose and objectives
  • membership
  • meeting arrangements
  • arrangements for reporting the outcome of meetings to employees

Acas can provide more information about committee constitutions, including a checklist on their website.

The idea is to create the most effective arrangements for your business, and co-ordination between the work of the committee and the health and safety representatives on the committee.

Membership of your committee

There is no correct number of committee members because the circumstances will vary from business to business. How many management and employee representatives you have on your committee will depend on the size and spread of your business and the types of work done.

Generally speaking, committee members can include:

  • management representatives who have the authority to give proper consideration to views and recommendations
  • employee representatives, either appointed by a trade union, elected by your workforce, or a combination of both, who have knowledge of the work of those they represent
  • representatives of others in the workplace such as contractors
  • co-opted members and others in the workplace - people who are included because of their specific competences such as the company doctor, health and safety adviser, and other specialists

For larger businesses, you may need a health and safety committee at the group or company level, especially if decisions are taken at this higher level. This does not mean you have to duplicate committees for the same workplace, but a single committee may be too large and impractical, or a small one may be too remote. In practice, you may have to set up several committees with arrangements for co-ordination between them.

It is good practice for management representatives to include:

  • the person responsible for health and safety in the business
  • a representative from the most senior level of management possible, such as a board member, to show commitment and leadership

Management representatives

Health and safety committee members representing you, as the employer, should:

  • have the authority to give proper considerations to views and recommendations
  • have the necessary knowledge and expertise to give the committee accurate advice about company policy on relevant matters such as premises, processes, machinery, equipment, or production processes
  • be representatives from across the supervisory level, and include, for example, work engineers and personnel managers, not just line managers

It is good practice for management representatives to include:

  • the person responsible for health and safety in the business
  • a representative from the most senior level of management possible, such as a board member, to show commitment and leadership

Senior managers can show their support and commitment to the committee by:

  • providing time and resources for the meetings, and perhaps even attending a meeting
  • submitting items for the agenda
  • giving feedback through their representative on the committee

Through leadership you can build trust and confidence so the work of the safety committee will not be undermined.

Employee representatives

Employee representatives should:

  • be appointed by a recognised trade union where there is one and they have appointed a representative
  • be elected by the employees they are to represent where there is not a recognised trade union
  • be employed in or have knowledge of the work of those they represent
  • normally have worked in the role/position for 2 years

Co-opted members and others in the workplace

It is good to:

  • have the company doctor, nurse, occupational hygienist or health and safety adviser as ex-officio members of the committee
  • allow other specialists in your business like project engineers, chemists, human resource professionals or training officers to be called into particular meetings to deal with specific matters requiring their expertise

Frequency of meetings

Your health and safety committee should meet regularly. The frequency will depend on the:

  • volume of business
  • size and spread of the workforce
  • type of work done in the workplace and their associated risks
  • issues to be discussed and other relevant factors

The committee's constitution should make it clear how often you will have meetings and how much notice members will be given. As a guide you should consider the following:

  • union appointed safety representatives can carry out inspections every 3 months. It is good practice to plan these together in advance. You may want to arrange committee meetings around the same time as these inspections, so you take up matters promptly. If these are planned in advance for 6 months to a year, then all members will have sufficient notice
  • if there has been a major incident or specific developments affecting health and safety like the introduction of new machinery, or organisational changes, the committee may want to hold special meetings

Larger organisations with multiple committees will also want to co-ordinate the work of committees, so planning corporate or higher level as well as local level meetings in advance would be good practice.

What your committee will do

A committee meeting gives you the opportunity to discuss with your employee representatives the general matters you must consult your workforce on.

To ensure you cover all relevant issues, the committee should agree some standing items for the agenda and allow for other items to be added as necessary. Consider standing items such as:

  • statistics on accident records, ill health, sickness absence
  • accident investigations and subsequent action
  • inspections of the workplace by enforcing authorities, management or employee health and safety representatives
  • risk assessments
  • health and safety training
  • emergency procedures
  • changes in the workplace affecting the health, safety and welfare of employees

If the health and safety committee is discussing accidents, the aim is to stop them happening again, not to give blame. Committees should:

  • look at the facts in an impartial way
  • consider what precautions might be taken
  • recommend appropriate actions
  • monitor progress with implementing the health and safety interventions

How the committee will make decisions and deal with disagreements

The committee can be powerful in making improvements in the workplace. When considering issues, the committee should:

  • discuss if action is needed
  • recommend agreed actions
  • record the discussion and actions in the minutes of the meeting which should be accessible to the whole workforce
  • follow up the actions
  • review them at a later date

A safety committee requires good communication between you and the committee members, and between the committee members and employees.

Resources employee representatives will need as committee members

It is good practice to provide both health and safety representatives appointed by trade unions and those elected by your employees the same resources, although you are only required to do this for union-appointed representatives. Employee health and safety representatives need to have:

  • time to prepare for meetings as management representatives would
  • access to the same information for the purposes of the discussion at the meetings
  • training that is reasonable in the circumstances to allow them to perform their role, which includes attending health and safety committee meetings for union-appointed representatives. Training for representatives can help them to contribute equally to the committee's aims and purpose

Being a member of the health and safety committee is part of a person's role as a health and safety representative, so they should not suffer a loss of pay when they attend meetings or carry out other activities on behalf of the committee.

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2025-05-29