All employers are already under a pro-active, positive legal duty to ensure that suitable personal protective equipment (“PPE”) is provided to its ‘Employees’ who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety whilst at work.
PPE is defined in the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992 (“PPER”) as “all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects the person against one or more risks to that person’s health or safety, and any addition or accessory designed to meet that objective”. Therefore, where an Employer has identified through a process of risk assessment that PPE would be necessary, they have a legal duty to provide it free of charge to Employees.
From 6 April 2022, the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 come into force and amend the PPER to now require Employers in Great Britain, to also ensure all ‘workers’ (which includes ‘limb B’ workforce e.g., casual / irregular workforce, labour-only contractors, or those who may otherwise work outside of any normal ‘contract of employment’) as well as employees, are supplied with adequate PPE free of charge.
Therefore, the precise duties in relation to PPE are not changing, but are being extended to capture and keep up with changes in the way businesses are engaging the ‘gig-economy’ and labour market, which more and more is utilising labour-only supply chain and workers.
PPE is a last resort in terms of the hierarchy of control, but that is not to say it doesn’t play an important and sometimes vital role in terms of how businesses protect their workforce, particularly in relation to noise, asbestos, and handling hazardous substances. If a risk assessment has indicated that a limb (b) worker requires PPE to carry out their work activities, the Employer must carry out a PPE suitability assessment and provide that PPE free of charge as they do for employees.
The Employer will continue to be responsible for the maintenance, storage and replacement of any PPE that they provide. There are separate legal requirements to also provide sufficient information, instruction and training on the use of PPE. Workers are under duties to ensure that their PPE is used in accordance with training, information and instructions from their Employers and under a duty to report defective and/or lost PPE.
The precise impact for your business may well depend on how you are already supplying PPE or engage with and appoint ‘limb B’ workers, but this change is certainly likely to mean a review of your risk assessments and PPE suitability assessments, and increased availability of PPE across your business. In light of this change, some other pointers that Employers may now wish to reflect on are: -
- Know where its risks are, who are likely to be affected by them (including all ‘workers’) and understand how PPE can help alongside other controls, to eliminate or mitigate those risks.
- Review risk assessments and PPE viability assessments.
- Choose your PPE suppliers carefully and ensure that you choose products which are appropriately CE or UKCA marked, in accordance with the Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018. Carry out due diligence on potential suppliers, and ensure that any agreements for provision of PPE will meet with the relevant market requirements.
- Ensure that you have an appropriate maintenance regime for PPE.
- Implement appropriate channels and reporting process for the workforce to raise any issues or defects in PPE.
Our Regulatory Team have a variety of ways in which we can help your business to understand and comply with its health and safety obligations. If you would like to know more, in relation to how these extensions around PPE or our ‘Brabners Protect’ legal and consultancy services, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
