Do you need a written health and safety policy? (UK restaurants)

Health and safety is the broadest of the restaurant compliance duties — and the one most likely to be a thin or missing document, because unlike food safety there's no single inspector knocking weekly. But a commercial kitchen is full of the exact hazards the law cares about: hot oil, sharp knives, wet floors, heavy lifting and hazardous chemicals. This guide explains when you need a written policy and what sits behind it.

When do you legally need a written H&S policy?

The trigger is headcount. Under section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, you must have a written health and safety policy once you employ five or more people. Below five, the duty to manage health and safety still applies in full — you just aren't legally required to write the policy itself down (though it's sensible to). The same five-employee threshold is also when the significant findings of your risk assessments must be recorded in writing.

What the policy has to contain

A health and safety policy has three standard parts:

1. Statement of intent — a short commitment to manage health and safety and prevent injury, signed and dated by the most senior person in the business.
2. Responsibilities — who is responsible for what, named: the owner, the managers, and individual employees' own duties.
3. Arrangements — how you actually manage risk: risk assessments, training and induction, PPE, accident reporting, consultation and review.

The risk assessments behind the policy

The policy is the cover sheet; the real work is the risk assessments. For a restaurant the standard set covers:

• slips and trips;
• manual handling (deliveries, kegs, stock, hot pans);
• knives and cutting;
• burns, scalds and hot oil;
• COSHH — cleaning chemicals and sanitisers;
• workplace transport and deliveries;
• violence and lone working;
• young workers, if you employ under-18s.

Fire has its own assessment — see our fire risk assessment guide.

The operational records: accident book, RIDDOR, first aid

A few records make the system real and are expected on inspection:

• Accident book — the BI 510 format keeps entries GDPR-compliant with detachable pages.
• RIDDOR reporting — report specified injuries, over-seven-day absences, certain diseases and dangerous occurrences to the HSE (Regulations 2013).
• First aid — a needs assessment, named first aiders, and a stocked kit (Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981).
• Employers' liability insurance certificate — required from your first employee and displayed (electronically is fine).

Turning the policy into something the team actually knows

A health and safety policy in a drawer protects no one. The duty that matters day to day is that staff are trained on the safe methods — how to lift, how to handle hot oil, what to do after an accident — and that you can show it. That induction-and-record loop is exactly where frunt fits.

frunt turns your health and safety procedures into induction training new starters complete on their phones, and keeps a dated record of who's been trained — so the human half of your H&S duty is evidenced, not assumed. Get started with frunt, or book a walkthrough.