Self Employed Health And Safety Responsibilities And The Law

If you're self-employed, you work yourself. And you will probably be classed as a sole trader by the HMRC.

We've written before about the health and safety responsibilities of employers, and employees, but what about the estimated 4.2 million self-employed? What does the law say? What are the health and safety responsibilities of the self-employed?

You might think that as a self-employed person, you don't need to worry about health and safety. After all, you are just looking after yourself.

But since you are the only person doing the work, it's extra important to stay safe and healthy. So you can continue to work. After all, if you get injured or become too unwell to work, you will lose your income, projects, and your clients.

And if you employ others, or put others at risk, then the law certainly applies to you too.

Self-employed duty of care

As a self-employed person, like everyone else, you will have a duty of care at work. This is a common law responsibility, and it is outside and on top of health and safety laws. The duty of care applies to everyone, so it's important to be aware of it.

In simple terms, duty of care means that we all must take care to avoid doing something that could hurt someone else.

Reasonable care includes:

• Preventing deaths
• Preventing injuries
• Preventing diseases and ill-health
• Providing a safe place of work
• Ensuring safe access and egress
• Providing safe systems of work
• Providing and maintaining safe plant and equipment
• Ensuring the health, safety and welfare of employees and others who may be affected by the work

Because the duty of care is established under common law, there is no specific regulation or legislation for it, but it is a legal requirement. The duty of care applies outside and on top of health and safety laws. And it applies to the self-employed.

Find out more in the duty of care explained.

Self-employed health and safety laws

But what about health and safety laws? Do these apply to self-employed workers?

Well, yes, mostly.

First, you need to find out if you are self-employed from a health and safety perspective. You might be classed as self-employed for tax reasons, and fill in a self-assessment, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are self-employed under health and safety law.

For health and safety law purposes, 'self-employed' means that you do not work under a contract of employment and work only for yourself.

HSE - Self-employed workers

If you are self-employed, then you can find out if the law applies to you in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. This is the act that enables all other health and safety regulations. And it includes self-employed workers in much the same way as it does employers.

But there were some changes in 2015. Since 2015, following the Löfstedt report, for some self-employed workers, the health and safety laws no longer apply. But this exception doesn't apply to all self-employed. It's estimated that for around 1.7 million self-employed, the law no longer applies. That's less than half of self-employed workers. The changes are marked in square brackets below.

(2)It shall be the duty of every self-employed person [who conducts an undertaking of a prescribed description] to conduct [the undertaking] in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety. [(2A)A description of undertaking included in regulations under subsection (2) may be framed by reference to—

1. the type of activities carried out by the undertaking, where those activities are carried out or any other feature of the undertaking;
2. whether persons who may be affected by the conduct of the undertaking, other than the self-employed person (or his employees), may thereby be exposed to risks to their health or safety.]

So the law only applies if you are self-employed and your work is specified (more on that below) or if other people may be exposed to risk from your work.

Health and safety responsibilities are usually for protecting others who may be affected by your work, so for self-employed people who work by themselves, where other people are not exposed to any risk from their work, there are exceptions.

Self-employed exceptions

Only workers who meet the health and safety definition of self-employed, and DO NOT employ other workers, are granted exceptions under health and safety law.

If you are an employer, you have the legal health and safety responsibilities of an employer.

And there are a few more conditions for the self-employed exceptions. You must not put others at risk, and you must not work in any of the scheduled activities:

• Agriculture
• Asbestos
• Construction
• Gas
• Genetically modified organisms
• Railways

So, if you:

• Work only for yourself
• Do not employ others
• And your work does not put others at risk
• And your work is not one of the scheduled activities

Health and safety law does not apply.

That makes sense. After all, if you are doing low-risk work, and don't have any employees, or put anyone else at risk, then why would it need to?

There's no one you need to protect, other than yourself, which you would be doing anyway. You're not an employer, and while you're not an employee either, you will likely take reasonable care of yourself, without being told to do it.

Examples of where health and safety law might not apply to a self-employed person would include many home-based workers like:

• A writer
• A cake maker (food safety would still apply)
• An artist
• A web developer

But it doesn't matter where you are based, home or not. It is more about the work you do. So it may also cover some self-employed workers that visit clients, like:

• A photographer
• An accountant
• A seamstress

But only if you have no employees, and your work doesn't put anyone else at risk.

If your work doesn't put others at risk

Remember, even if you are self-employed with no employees, and you don't work in one of the scheduled activities, you are only exempt from health and safety laws if your work doesn't put others at risk.

In health and safety, risk is the measurement of the likelihood of harming someone, and the severity of the harm that might occur.

You must assess the work you are doing and decide if it creates a risk or not.

Examples where health and safety laws apply, even if you have no employees, are tradespeople, landlords, and even hairdressers.

• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Bricklayers
• Joiners
• Handymen
• Roofers
• Consultants
• Landlords
• Mechanics
• Hairdressers

If you work in construction, as a high-risk industry, health and safety laws comply. It is one of the specified activities for this reason. You need to comply with all relevant regulations, like COSHH, CDM and other construction-related regulations.

If you are a consultant, and your advice affects how other people do their job, then health and safety laws will apply as those people could come to harm based on your advice.

If your work puts other people at risk, for example, a hairdresser using chemicals and dyes, a landlord with gas responsibilities, or if you're running a garage or workshop where other people could come to harm, then health and safety law applies to you.

Remember if you employ workers, you have employer duties under health and safety. If you put others at risk, you have self-employed duties under health and safety, to protect people from harm.

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Find out how to protect people from harm by getting to know the legal requirements for risk assessment and the 5 steps to risk assessment.