New Health & Safety Law Poster
May 2009
On 6th April 2009, the HSE published a new version of the Health & Safety Law Poster. Employers have a legal duty under the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989, to display the poster in a prominent position in each workplace or provide each worker with a copy of the equivalent leaflet outlining British health and safety laws.
The new poster updates the previous poster, which was published in April 1999. Research showed that the previous version of poster was visually unappealing and rarely read. The new version has been completely re-designed to be more easily readable and engaging.
The poster also reflects recent changes in the law to reduce the administrative cost to employers of having to provide additional written information on the poster, and having to keep this information up to date. Instead, workers are advised to phone the HSE Infoline to be put in touch with the health and safety enforcing authority for their workplace or with HSE for employment medical advice.
To help avoid an unnecessary burden on businesses, the HSE Board has set a 5 year transition period for replacing the current poster and leaflet. They must be replaced by the new poster no later than 5 April 2014.