Off the shelf safety policies

Experience suggests that policies written by someone else may fail to achieve the desired practical, or maybe even legal, effects. Several commercially-available boiler plate model policies can be bought, including one by the HSE, but they all require adjustment to the particular needs of the organisation. Because of the many uses to which the safety policy is put, it is well to be aware that legal compliance is only the first of the requirements for a successful policy to meet. Successful policies are those which satisfy all the needs of the organisation. 

As with risk assessments, the administrative burden of producing a safety policy falls more heavily on the smaller organisation. Nevertheless, there is value for them in carrying out the exercise - small construction businesses tend to have proportionally more accidents to their workers, can engage in high-risk activities and will benefit from a review of the hazards their employees face. 

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