What is a Safety Statement?
Quite simply a Safety Statement is a detailed and written report of a Health & Safety Management System which should be made accessible and readily available to produce upon random inspection by the authorities.
It must contain specific procedures and risk assessments which will manage health and safety effectively for you, your employees and anyone else affected by your business operations in accordance with Health & Safety legislation.
Under Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 companies are required to prepare a safety statement based on risk assessment must show how the company manages health and safety. While this was already a requirement under the previous law, the new Act is very specific in terms of what should be included in a safety statement.
A Safety Statement must be a relevant working document which, when implemented should produce a positive impact to the management of health and safety in the workplace. In addition, it must be site specific to your business activities and will therefore require our assessor to conduct a survey of your premises. If this procedure is not carried out it will not be legally valid or complaint.
What is the function of a Safety Statement?
A Safety Statement should identify the following:
- Hazards in the company
- The steps taken and the resources provided to protect employees
- Employees' duties in relation to health and safety
- The names and, where applicable, the job titles of persons responsible for performing safety tasks
- The arrangements regarding the appointment of safety representatives and safety consultation.
There should also be procedures in place to bring the safety statement to the attention of staff and others at the workplace that may be affected by any specific risk to which the safety statement applies.
The statement must also be reviewed whenever there have been significant changes or where there is reason to believe it is no longer valid.
Once an assessment and survey is complete Safety Skills will prepare and produce a customised and detailed Safety Statement tailored to a client’s specific requirement.
What will happen if a Safety Statement cannot be produced by a company?
Failure to provide the authorities with a current up-to-date Safety Statement which is site specific and (not a general statement) could result in the HSA initiating criminal proceedings against Directors and/or Senior Managers who on citation could receive up to €3 million euro fines and/or up to 2 years in prison.
