How I Use the Personal Protective Equipment Template with Customers in Pilla
PPE is the control measure that gets the most attention and the least thought. I've reviewed health and safety management systems across hundreds of businesses, and the pattern is almost always the same: there's a cupboard full of gloves and hi-vis vests, a vague statement about "appropriate PPE must be worn," and no record of who was issued what, when it was last replaced, or whether anyone was trained to use it properly.
The problem is rarely that PPE isn't available. It's that the arrangements around it are thin. Risk assessments jump straight to PPE without considering whether the hazard could be eliminated or controlled another way. Equipment gets handed out with no training. Worn-out gear stays in circulation because nobody tracks its condition. That's what this article is for. I'll walk you through what your PPE policy needs to cover, give you a template you can edit for your own operation, and explain the bits that actually matter when an HSE inspector turns up.
Key Takeaways
- What is personal protective equipment in health and safety? PPE is any equipment provided to protect an employee from workplace hazards when other control measures can't fully eliminate the risk. It covers everything from gloves and eye protection to hearing defenders and respiratory equipment, and it should be the last line of defence, not the first
- Why do you need a PPE policy? The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (as amended 2002) require employers to provide suitable PPE free of charge, maintain it, train staff on its use, and ensure it's actually worn. An HSE inspector will want to see documented arrangements covering the full lifecycle from risk assessment through to replacement
- 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
PPE sits at the bottom of the hierarchy of controls. Eliminate the hazard first. If you can't eliminate it, substitute it with something less dangerous. If you can't do that, use engineering controls, then administrative controls, and only then, when all of those options have been exhausted or can't fully manage the risk, do you reach for PPE. I've lost count of the number of risk assessments I've reviewed where the "control measure" column just says "wear gloves" with no evidence that anyone considered whether the hazard could be removed altogether.
The legal basis is the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, amended in 2002. They require you to provide suitable PPE free of charge when risks can't be adequately controlled by other means. But the duty doesn't stop at handing over a pair of safety glasses. You have to assess the hazard, select equipment that's appropriate for it, ensure it fits the person wearing it, train them to use and care for it, maintain it, store it properly, replace it when it's worn or damaged, and monitor that the whole system is working. That's a lot of moving parts for something most businesses treat as a tick-box exercise.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 sits above this as the general duty. Section 2 requires employers to provide and maintain a safe system of work, and that includes PPE where it's needed. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 add the requirement for risk assessment, which is where PPE needs should be identified in the first place.
An HSE inspector will look at your PPE arrangements as part of a broader inspection. They'll want to see that PPE requirements flow from your risk assessments, that you have records of what's been issued and to whom, that training has been documented, and that equipment is in good condition. I worked with a manufacturing business in Leeds that had every piece of PPE you could ask for, stored neatly, catalogued by type. The problem was nobody could show me a single training record. Equipment was issued on day one and that was the last anyone thought about it. That gap between provision and proper management is where most businesses fall down.
PPE also has to be suitable for the specific task. Different chemicals need different glove materials. A dust mask won't protect against chemical vapour. Generic PPE, the "one box of gloves for everything" approach, is a common failure I see. The regulations are clear: the equipment must match the hazard.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a personal protective equipment template in Pilla covering PPE identification through risk assessment, provision and issue recording, training requirements, enforcement, suitability checks, maintenance, storage, and monitoring. It gives you a structured starting point, but you should edit it to reflect how your workplace actually operates.
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. Where it says "Company Name," replace it with your business name. Where it references responsible persons, name them. If you have specific PPE requirements for particular tasks or areas, add them. An HSE inspector wants to see that your policy reflects your operation, not that you've copied a generic document.
9. Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (as amended 2002)
Through the process of risk assessment, Company Name will identify personal protective equipment required and ensure that adequate supplies of all necessary protective clothing or equipment are available for issue as required, and that when issued to employees, a record is kept to document provision.
*Responsible persons will ensure that, employees are provided with training, so they know how to safely wear and care for equipment they have been issued with. All training provided by the business will be recorded. Any new starter with the business before they are set to work will be equipped with all necessary protective clothing.
Any person in the workplace, who is observed not wearing protective clothing while carrying out a process which requires the use of protective clothing will be informed of statutory and company policy requirements and instructed not continue working until protective clothing is obtained.
*Responsible Persons will ensure that the protective clothing or equipment is suitable for the specific process for which it is provided. Information and advice on the correct equipment to be issued can be obtained from Foursquare Group, if required.
Arrangements will be made so that personal protective equipment can be maintained, serviced, cleaned, and replaced where necessary and/or appropriate. Facilities will be provided for the storage of PPE where it is necessary to do so.
The implementation of these safety arrangements will be monitored and reviewed to ensure they remain suitable for the provision of personal protective equipment.
*Responsible persons are identified in the House Responsibility Chart section of the Health & Safety Policy.
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 risk assessment connection is the most important part. PPE requirements should be traceable back to a specific hazard identified in a risk assessment. If I'm reviewing your policy and I can't see how you decide what PPE is needed and for which tasks, the whole thing falls apart. The template covers this, but you need to make sure your actual risk assessments specify the PPE required and that this policy references them.
The training section matters more than most people think. Handing someone a hard hat is not training. I'd want to see that employees are taught why the equipment is needed, how to put it on correctly, how to check it before use, how to care for it, and what to do if it's damaged. That training needs to be recorded, and it needs to happen before someone starts work, not during their second week when someone remembers.
Common mistakes I see:
The issue recording section is the one that's most often empty. Businesses buy PPE, put it in a cupboard, and let people help themselves. There's no record of who took what, when it was issued, or whether they were shown how to use it. The template includes a provision for recording equipment issue. Use it. When an HSE inspector asks "can you show me who's been issued hearing protection for the workshop?" you need an answer.
The enforcement section gets written but not followed. The template states that anyone observed not wearing required PPE should be stopped and not allowed to continue until they have the correct equipment. I've visited sites where supervisors walk past workers without eye protection because pulling them up feels confrontational. If your policy says it's mandatory, it has to be mandatory. Write the escalation steps into the policy and follow them.
Maintenance and replacement is the other blind spot. PPE has a shelf life. Filters need changing, harnesses need inspecting, gloves degrade with chemical exposure. The template covers arrangements for maintenance, cleaning, and replacement, but I regularly find businesses that have no system for tracking condition or service life. A hard hat that's five years old and has been dropped twice is not protecting anyone.
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.