Do Sole Traders Need a Health and Safety Policy?

Pro Site Docs · Guide

'I'm a one-man band, I don't need a health and safety policy.' Half right. Here is the other half, and why it costs people work.

What the law actually says

Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to have a health and safety policy, and to have it in writing where they employ five or more people. Below five, the policy still has to exist — you still have to have thought about how you manage risk — but it does not have to be written down.

So a sole trader with no employees has no legal duty to produce a written policy. That part of the claim is true.

Why you need one anyway

Nearly every main contractor, principal contractor and pre-qualification questionnaire in the UK asks for a copy of your health and safety policy before you are approved to work. It is on the form. No policy means no approval, and no approval means no job. The same goes for public liability insurance, evidence of competence and sample RAMS. None of it is about what the HSE requires at that point; it is about whether the client will let you on site.

SSIP schemes such as CHAS, SafeContractor and Constructionline also expect a policy as part of the assessment, and being on one of those is increasingly the entry ticket to commercial work.

What a policy has to contain

HSE's own template splits a policy into three parts, and that is the structure assessors expect to see:

• Statement of intent — your commitment to managing health and safety, signed and dated by the person in charge (for a sole trader, you), and reviewed at least annually
• Responsibilities — who does what. In a one-person firm that is short, but it should still say who is responsible for risk assessment, training, equipment checks, first aid and reporting
• Arrangements — how you actually do it: risk assessments and method statements, training and competence, plant and equipment, PPE, welfare, accident reporting under RIDDOR, consultation, and review

How long should it be

For a sole trader or a small firm, two to four pages. A 40-page policy copied from a national contractor is a red flag to an experienced assessor, because it describes arrangements you plainly do not have. Write what you do. If you do not do something the template mentions, take it out.

Keep it alive

A policy dated three years ago tells a client you have not looked at it since. Review it once a year, when the law changes, or when the business changes — taking on a first employee, for example, which brings in employer's liability insurance and, at five, the written-policy duty itself.

Get the documents ready-made

Our health and safety policy templates follow the HSE three-part structure and are sized for small firms, or the Start-Up / New Contractor Pack gives you the policy plus the RAMS and forms a PQQ asks for.

General guidance only. This article explains how the rules generally work in UK construction. It is not advice for your specific site, task or project, and it is not legal advice. Your own risk assessment, method statement and arrangements must be prepared and checked by a competent person for the actual work being done.