How I Use the Display Screen Equipment Template with Customers in Pilla
Display screen equipment is one of those health and safety topics that gets dismissed because the risk feels low. Nobody's going to lose a limb at a desk. But I've reviewed DSE arrangements in offices, control rooms, and mixed-use sites where staff were logging eight or nine hours a day on screens with no self-assessment, no break planning, and chairs that hadn't been adjusted since they came out of the box. The injuries show up slowly, wrist pain that builds over weeks, a stiff neck that becomes chronic, headaches that staff just accept as normal. By the time someone raises it, the damage is already done.
The gap I see most often is not a missing policy. It's a policy that exists on paper but has no connection to what actually happens at the workstation. The self-assessment form gets filed but never reviewed. The entitlement to eye tests is buried in a handbook nobody reads. That's what this article is for. I'll walk you through what the DSE Regulations actually require, give you a template you can edit for your operation, and explain the parts that matter when an HSE inspector asks how you're managing screen work.
Key Takeaways
- What is display screen equipment in health and safety? Display screen equipment covers computers, laptops, tablets, and any screen used as part of work. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to assess and reduce the health risks from prolonged DSE use, including upper limb disorders, back pain, and eye fatigue
- Why do you need a display screen equipment policy? The DSE Regulations place specific duties on employers to identify DSE users, ensure workstations meet minimum standards, provide breaks from screen work, and offer eye tests on request. An HSE inspector will check you're managing these risks, and a written policy shows your arrangements are in place
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, amended in 2002, sit underneath the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. They apply to any employer whose staff use screens as a significant part of their normal work. That covers most offices, but it also catches control rooms, reception desks, and any role where someone sits at a screen for continuous stretches of an hour or more.
The regulations require you to do six things. Identify which workers count as DSE users. Make sure those users complete a workstation self-assessment. Review the assessments to check workstations meet minimum standards. Plan work so it includes breaks or changes of activity. Provide eye and eyesight tests on request, and pay for glasses if someone needs them specifically for screen work. Provide training that covers the risks, how to adjust furniture, how to clean equipment, and how to complete the assessment.
The health problems DSE work causes are real, even if they build slowly. Upper limb disorders, often called repetitive strain injury, cover pain in the neck, arms, elbows, wrists, hands, and fingers. Back pain from sitting for hours in a badly adjusted chair. Fatigue and stress from prolonged concentration. Eye fatigue from focusing on a screen without breaks. Headaches from strain, poor posture, or glare. There's no evidence that screen work causes permanent eye damage, but eye fatigue still affects performance and wellbeing.
I've seen offices where three people in the same team had wrist pain and nobody had connected it to the workstation setup. The self-assessments had been ticked off as fine. When I actually sat at each desk, one keyboard was pushed to the back of the surface with no wrist space, another chair was at the wrong height, and the third person was using a laptop flat on the desk with no external keyboard. All preventable.
An HSE inspector looking at your DSE arrangements wants to see that you've identified your users, that assessments have been completed and reviewed, that problems flagged in assessments have been acted on, and that staff know about their entitlement to breaks and eye tests. The paperwork matters, but so does the reality at the workstation.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a display screen equipment template in Pilla covering DSE user identification, workstation self-assessment, minimum requirements, breaks and activity changes, eye tests, training, and portable computer guidance. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to edit it to reflect your actual operation.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. If your business doesn't use portable computers, remove that section. If you have specific arrangements for home workers, add them. If you've already chosen an optician for eye tests, name them. An HSE inspector wants to see that the policy reflects your operation, not that you've filed a generic document.
31. Display Screen Equipment
Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (as amended in 2002)
Display screen equipment (DSE) will be used by senior management. Company Name have a responsibility to all employees to safeguard their health and welfare, this includes the process of using display screen equipment.
The health problems associated with DSE work are:
Upper limb disorders (including pains in the neck, arms, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers). Often known as repetitive strain injury (RSI)
Back pain
Fatigue and stress
Eye fatigue (no evidence to suggest that DSE work will cause permanent damage to eyes or eyesight)
Headaches.
Company Name will manage the risk associated to DSE by following these safety arrangements
Responsible Persons to Identify workers who should be classed as users.
Ensure all users complete a workstation self-assessment form to measure their set-up in line with best practice.
Review all completed assessment forms to ensure workstations meet specified minimum requirements.
Plan work activities so that they include breaks from the screen or changes of activity.
Provide eye and eyesight tests on request, and if the test shows that the user needs glasses specifically for DSE work, pay for a basic pair of frames and lenses.
Provide information and training - training to include awareness of the risks, how to adjust furniture, how to clean equipment and how to completed the workstation checklist.
Portable computers – HSE Guidance
These same controls will also reduce the DSE risks associated with portable computers. However, the following may also help reduce manual handling, fatigue and postural problems:
Consider potential risks from manual handling if users have to carry heavy equipment and papers.
Whenever possible, users should be encouraged to use a docking station or firm surface and a full-sized keyboard and mouse.
The height and position of the portable's screen should be angled so that the user is sitting comfortably, and reflection is minimised.
More changes in activity may be needed if the user cannot minimise the risks of prolonged use and awkward postures to suitable levels.
While portable systems not in prolonged use, are excluded from the regulations some jobs will use such devices intermittently and to support the main tasks. The degree and intensity of use may vary. Any employer who provides such equipment still has to risk assess and take steps to reduce residual risks.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The user identification section is the foundation. If you haven't worked out who counts as a DSE user, nothing else in the policy applies properly. I'd want to see that responsible persons have actually assessed which roles involve significant screen use, not just assumed it's everyone in the office. Someone who uses a screen for twenty minutes a day isn't a DSE user under the regulations. Someone who logs five hours a day on a laptop is.
The self-assessment process matters more than the form itself. I'd want to see that completed forms are reviewed by a responsible person, that problems are acted on, and that workstations are checked against the minimum requirements for chairs, desks, screens, keyboards, space, lighting, and noise. A self-assessment that goes into a drawer is worthless.
The eye test section should make the entitlement clear. Staff should know they can request a test, that it'll be provided, and that if they need glasses specifically for screen work the business pays for a basic pair. I've worked with businesses where staff had no idea this was an entitlement. That's a compliance gap waiting to be found.
Common mistakes I see:
Self-assessments get treated as a tick-box exercise. Staff rush through them, mark everything as satisfactory, and nobody checks the actual workstation. I've reviewed assessments where every box was ticked as fine, then walked over to the desk and found the screen at chest height, no wrist space in front of the keyboard, and a chair that couldn't be adjusted because the lever was broken. The assessment needs to reflect reality, and someone needs to verify it does.
Breaks from screen work get ignored because they feel unproductive. The regulations are specific: work activities must be planned to include breaks or changes of activity. That's not a suggestion. I see businesses where staff work for three or four hours solid at a screen because the workload doesn't allow for breaks. Short, frequent breaks are more effective than occasional long ones. Five minutes away from the screen every hour is the guidance, and it needs to be built into how work is planned, not left to individuals to fit in when they can.
The portable computers section gets skipped entirely. If your staff use laptops, the same DSE risks apply. Laptops are worse for posture than desktops because the screen and keyboard are connected, which forces a compromise between screen height and typing position. The template covers docking stations, external keyboards, and manual handling of heavy equipment. If your team carries laptops between sites, that section needs to be in your policy.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.