Health and safety for businesses

COVID-19: workplace safety advice and resources

From 1 April 2022 the government has replaced the existing set of ‘Working Safely’ guidance with new public health guidance. 

Official guidance on COVID-19 workplace safety

There are several guides covering a range of different types of work. You may need to use more than one of these guides as you think through what you need to do to keep people safe.

Carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment

If you're a business, you must carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment to show you're taking reasonable steps to protect your workers from coronavirus. If you've 5 or more employees, you'll need to write up your risk assessment so you can demonstrate what safety measures you're taking.

As part of your risk assessment you must:

  1. Identify what work activities or situations might cause the virus to spread from one person to another and act to remove these activities or situations, if possible.
  2. Think about who could be at risk, such as employees, visitors, members of the public or contractors.
  3. Decide how likely it is that someone could be exposed to the virus.
  4. Talk to your staff about the risk assessment and communicate the outcome to them.
  5. Periodically review your risk assessment in light of changes to work activities or guidelines.

You may also find it helpful to:

How to make your workplace safer

Ways to make your workplace safer include: 

  • Following government guidance. 
  • Providing hand washing facilities or hand sanitisers.
  • Displaying posters which remind your employees of good handwashing techniques.

Cleaning your workplace

Read some tips which may help you keep your workplace clean.

  • Decide how frequently you need to clean the work areas, equipment and vehicles.
  • Clean communal areas such as kitchens, bathrooms and staircase rails frequently.
  • Use disposable cleaning products to clean all hard surfaces, floors, chairs, door handles and sanitary fittings. You should throw these away after one use.
  • Use a disinfectant for cleaning and follow the instructions on the bottle.

Disposing of your business waste

Here's some advice for disposing of your business waste.

  • Check that the company you hire to remove your trade waste is operating as normal with the same number of collections.
  • Make sure your waste company supplies you with enough waste bins.
  • Store your waste securely while waiting collection.
  • PPE used by your employees, such as face masks, face coverings or gloves, should be bagged and then placed in your business' general waste bin.