Retail surgery: Who is responsible for health and safety when we have contractors working in our stores?

Legislation, such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2008 place retailers firmly in the firing line when it comes to health and safety breaches on their premises.

SAFEcontractor is a risk management specialist that works with retailers including Next and Tesco. Its head of risk John Kinge says: “Retailers are responsible for ensuring the health and safety practices of the external contractors that come onto their premises are up to scratch. This presents a difficult situation for retailers, which face the potential threat associated with employing hundreds of external contractors on a daily basis.”

He explains that responsibility is joint: “It is this potential danger posed to the public that the legislation sets out to prevent, by placing health and safety responsibility equally on the shoulders of those at the top of the purchasing chain as it does on the contractors themselves.”

Schemes such as SAFEcontractor undertake initial health and safety checks of contractors such as shopfitters, cleaners and maintenance staff on behalf of retailers so they can be confident that those approved by the scheme have met the most stringent standards.

Kinge concludes: “If a retailer can prove in the event of an accident that they have done as much as is reasonably practical to eliminate the risks involved and have a strong health and safety management system in place, then this should stand favourably in a court of law.”