Which Health & Safety records should you keep?
Keeping good Health & Safety records is essential for legal compliance. But which records should you keep, and for how long?
Certain records must be kept to comply with the company’s Health & Safety policy and specific legislation. Keeping good health and safety records is important for several reasons:
- Retrievability: Ensures key information is easily accessible and can be passed on, ensuring consistency and continuity.
- Compliance: Demonstrates (internally and externally) compliance with legal duties under health and safety law.
- Efficiency: Makes the job of Health & Safety easier by clarifying what needs to be done and when.
- Monitoring: Enables senior managers to monitor health and safety performance.
- Legal requirement: Many records must be available for inspection by enforcement agencies (HSE/Environmental Health), Union Health & Safety Representatives, Health & Safety Services staff, and the company Health & Safety Committee.
In cases of potential civil litigation, records might be requested by solicitors acting on behalf of claimants, even years after the statutory need to keep records has expired. Seek advice from your insurance provider as soon as possible. Where records include personal data, the requirements of the Data Protection Act apply.
The Health & Safety file
A Health & Safety file should be readily available for inspection. Files can be electronic, as long as they are easily and quickly retrievable, but ideally, a hard copy should be printed out. The file should serve as the central health and safety record for the company. Details of the following should be retained locally in the file (where applicable):
- Copies of other local health and safety policies, procedures or guidance given to staff or students.
- Copies of applicable Risk assessments (remember: the law states that if you have 5 or more employees within the organisation, the risk assessments must be documented and ideally reviewed following a significant change, an accident or on an annual basis).
- Completed Accident Records Sheets (removed from the Accident Book) or at least details of where these and the Accident Book are kept.
- Copies of any Accident Report Form sent to Health & Safety Services, plus the report of any investigation made into the accident/incident and details of any remedial action taken.
- Documentation required to demonstrate compliance, such as:
- Fire alarm, emergency lighting, and fire door testing and maintenance records, as well as details of fire evacuation drills.
- Electrical testing and maintenance (both fixed and portable).
- Statutory examination reports (e.g., LOLER, Gas Safe, Local Exhaust Ventilation).
- Training and induction records.
For further guidance, please contact the Health & Safety advice line.
How long should Health & Safety records be kept?
Five years is a good rule of thumb for most health and safety records. Risk assessment records should be kept as long as the particular process or activity to which the assessments refer is performed. Examination of past assessments allows changes and improvements to be identified.
Civil claims for injury can be made up to three years after an incident (for someone under 18, records should be retained for three years from when they turn 18). Therefore, it is a good idea to keep risk assessments relating to the previous three years. Some records relating to health or environmental risks must be kept for longer periods (such as asbestos, hand-arm vibration, etc.).
How to store health records
Health records are not medically confidential documents. They provide feedback to management on the results of health surveillance, both for safely deploying each employee and for collective analysis of the overall effectiveness of immunisation for staff at risk. Health records also allow for outcome analysis of ill health from BBV exposure at a later stage if necessary.
Health records showing the outcome of occupational health surveillance should be held by and available to managers responsible for deploying staff. The only exception is when an employer can demonstrate that reasonable access to these records is available to such managers whenever the relevant staff are working (e.g., through health records retained by an occupational health department).
There are additional provisions for health records relating to work with biological agents, such as a historical record of work with or exposure to blood-borne viruses.
Looking for more information like this? Take a look at our latest article to find out how long you should be keeping hold of your HR records.
