How I Use the Health and Safety Policy Statement Template with Customers in Pilla
The policy statement is the document most businesses get wrong first. Not because it's complicated, but because they treat it as a formality. I've reviewed health and safety management systems for hundreds of organisations, and the pattern repeats: someone downloads a template, swaps in the company name, gets the owner to sign it, and files it. Then nothing. Nobody reads it. Nobody references it. And when an HSE inspector asks a member of staff what the company's commitment to health and safety looks like, they shrug.
The statement itself is short. A page, maybe two. But it's the foundation of your entire management system. Every other policy, procedure, and risk assessment hangs off it. Get the statement right, make sure people have actually read it, and you've set the tone for everything that follows. That's what this article covers: what the law requires, what good practice looks like based on my experience advising businesses on compliance, and how to set it up in Pilla so it doesn't end up gathering dust.
Key Takeaways
- What is a health and safety policy statement? It's your organisation's formal written commitment to protecting employees, contractors, visitors, and the public. It sets out who's responsible for what, what the business promises to provide, and what's expected of staff in return
- Why do you need a policy statement? The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to prepare and keep a written statement of their general policy on health and safety. It's the foundation document that sits above every other policy in your management system, and an HSE inspector will ask for it
- 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 policy statement is a legal requirement under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. If you employ five or more people, you must have a written statement of your general policy on health and safety at work, the organisation you've put in place to carry it out, and the arrangements for doing so. Businesses with fewer than five employees still have the same duties, they just don't need it in writing. In practice, I'd recommend writing one regardless. It forces you to think the responsibilities through.
The statement does three things. It sets out the employer's commitment to securing the health, safety, and welfare of employees, contractors, visitors, and members of the public. It makes clear that employees have their own legal duties, specifically to take reasonable care of themselves and others and not to interfere with anything provided for their safety. And it identifies the responsible persons who will implement, monitor, and maintain the policy day to day.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 sit underneath the Act and add more specific requirements: risk assessments, competent persons, training, and health surveillance where needed. Your policy statement is the umbrella. It references all of this without going into procedural detail. That detail lives in your individual policies, which is where the rest of your management system comes in.
What an HSE inspector looks for is straightforward. They want to see a signed, dated statement. They want it to be current, not three years old. They want evidence that staff have been made aware of it. And they want to see that what's written down matches what actually happens on the ground. I've sat in on inspections where the statement promised adequate training but the business couldn't produce a single training record. That's the gap that causes problems.
One thing I tell every client: the statement is a leadership document, not an admin task. The person who signs it is accepting personal accountability for health and safety across the organisation. If the most senior person treats it as a tick-box exercise, the rest of the team will follow their lead.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a health and safety policy statement template in Pilla covering employer duties, employee responsibilities, responsible persons, company commitments, cooperation requirements, and review arrangements. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to edit it to reflect your own organisation.
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. Replace "Company Name" with your actual business name. Check that the commitments listed match what you genuinely provide. If you don't carry out health surveillance, be honest about that and note it as something to review. If you have specific welfare arrangements beyond the basics, add them. The HSE inspector wants to see that your statement reflects your operation, not that you've copied a generic document.
HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY STATEMENT
Company Name acknowledges and accepts its statutory responsibilities under The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in so far as is reasonably practicable, for securing the health, safety and welfare of its employees, contractors, visitors, and members of the public on the premises.
All employees have a legal responsibility for their own safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions and not to interfere or misuse anything provided in the interests of health and safety.
Responsible Persons accept responsibility for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining this Policy throughout the business including maintaining the business premises. All Responsible Persons identified on our Health & Safety Organisational Chart must ensure that health and safety considerations are always given priority in the planning, safe working practice and day-to-day supervision of work.
All employees, of Company Name are required to co-operate, in carrying out this policy and must ensure that their own work, so far as is reasonably practicable, is carried out without risk to themselves or the health and safety of others.
Responsible Persons identified by Company Name will, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that:
adequate resources are provided to ensure that proper provision can be made for health and safety.
risks arising from work activities are assessed effective control measures implemented and suitable policies and procedures are provided, put in place, and regularly reviewed.
safe systems of work are provided and maintained.
arrangements for use handling, storage and transport of articles and substances for use at work are safe and without risks to health.
all employees receive information, instruction, training, and supervision to reduce risk to their safety and health whilst at work and the safety of others who may be affected by their actions.
an appropriate level of information and instruction is provided to visitors, service providers and occupiers.
where appropriate, health and surveillance will be provided to employees.
provision and maintenance of all plant, machinery and equipment is safe and without risk to health.
the working environment of all employees is safe and without risks to health and that adequate provision is made regarding the facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work.
work related accidents, ill health and safety performance are regularly monitored
ensure that there are established and maintained effective procedures for consultation and communication between all levels of management to employees on all matters relating to health and welfare.
This Health and Safety Policy will be reviewed at least annually, or when there is a significant change within Company Name or change to relevant legislation. Any changes made to this policy will be communicated to all employees.
Signed:
Position: Date:
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 commitments section is the heart of the document. Each bullet, from adequate resources through to consultation and communication, represents a specific legal duty. I'd want to see that you've read each one and understood what it means for your business. "Safe systems of work are provided and maintained" is easy to sign off on. It's harder to answer when someone asks you to name three safe systems of work you've actually put in place. That's the test.
The responsible persons section matters more than most businesses realise. Naming someone on the organisational chart creates a legal duty for that person. They need to know they've been named, understand what it means, and have the time and resources to fulfil the role. I've reviewed statements where the named responsible person had left the company six months earlier. That's not a minor oversight.
The signature and date at the bottom carry weight. The person signing is the person with overall accountability. In most small businesses, that's the owner or managing director. If they delegate signing to someone junior, an HSE inspector will question whether senior leadership is genuinely committed.
Common mistakes I see:
The most common mistake is leaving "Company Name" in the template without replacing it. It sounds obvious, but I've seen it in live documents more than once. An HSE inspector seeing a generic placeholder immediately questions whether you've read your own policy.
Businesses list commitments they don't actually fulfil. The template includes health surveillance, consultation procedures, and information for visitors. If you're not doing any of those things, either start doing them or remove the commitment and note it as a gap to address. A statement that promises things you don't deliver is worse than an honest one with acknowledged gaps.
The review commitment at the bottom says the policy will be reviewed at least annually or when there is a significant change. Most businesses sign it once and forget it. If your statement is dated two or three years ago, it tells an inspector that nobody is actively managing health and safety. Set a calendar reminder. It takes twenty minutes to review.
Responsible persons are named but not told. I've seen organisational charts where staff didn't know they'd been assigned specific health and safety duties. If someone is named as responsible for fire safety, they need to know that, accept it, and understand what's expected of them. Otherwise the chart is fiction.
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.