Legal advice: You must manage contractor risks
Many publicans will be thinking of carrying out work to their pubs to either improve their fire safety arrangements or to help them comply with the no-smoking laws being introduced in 2007.
If you engage the services of a contractor, no matter how small the organisation, you are expected to manage all aspects of health and safety in order to minimise the risk of accidents.
Whether you are the manager of a pub owned by a big pub company, a lessee, tenant or the owner of a freehold pub, you must ensure that the contractor operates safely and that you provide information to them on hazards in the pub, fire arrangements, and other health and safety issues.
The Health & Safety Executive is increasingly prosecuting employers who fail to provide information or suitable supervision to contractors.
When you appoint a contractor you must:
- review their health and safety record
- check that they are competent to do the work
- provide them with information on the pub, whether you have low cellar ceilings, for example, if deliveries are expected, whether there any hazardous substances on the premises, procedures for working at heights, fire safety procedures
- ask them for method statements or risk assessments
- discuss the job before it starts so that you can agree precautions to manage health and safety.
If someone is going to work on your electrics or gas appliances, make sure they are qualified to do so.
You must complete your own risk assessment for any improvement works, which doesn't need to be complicated. Simply make a note of the answers to questions such as:
- what work needs to be done?
- who will do it, when and where?
- what hazards might they encounter?
- what hazards might they create?
- what steps do you need to take to reduce the risks of accident and injury?
Pat Perry is executive chairman of Perry Scott Nash Associates, an environmental health consultancy specialising in health & safety, food safety, fire safety, disability discrimination and other legal compliance issues. It has a wide client base in the hospitality industry and can help with audits, policies, enforcement and legal issues, special projects, trading standards etc.
