Workplace First Aid and the Law

The First Aid Essentials course teaches you what to do when someone is injured. This one is about the framework around it — the duties an employer carries, who has to be trained and to what, and what has to be recorded. It is dull in the way that seatbelts are dull, and it is most of what separates the classroom day from what you already know.

The duty, and why it has no fixed number in it

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require an employer to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel so that employees receive immediate attention if injured or taken ill at work. Note what it does not say: it names no headcount, no kit contents, and no qualification. What counts as adequate is established by a first aid needs assessment.

The needs assessment produces an answer about people, and there are two distinct roles the law recognises. Confusing them is the most common workplace first aid mistake.

The two roles

The two qualifications

The first aid box

There is no legally mandated list of contents — the needs assessment governs this too — but BS 8599-1 is the British Standard for workplace first aid kits and gives small, medium and large specifications that most employers simply buy to. What the Regulations are firm about is that kits should contain no medication of any kind: a first aider does not administer drugs, and aspirin or paracetamol in a workplace kit is a longstanding and avoidable mistake. Check contents and expiry dates on a schedule, and record that you did.

Records

Every incident treated should be recorded — date and time, who was injured, what happened, what treatment was given, and by whom. Two reasons: it is evidence if a claim or an investigation follows months later, and patterns in the book are how you notice that the same step keeps causing the same injury. The record contains health information about identifiable people, so it is personal data and must be kept securely and only as long as needed. The old-style open accident book where everyone can read the previous entries is a data protection problem.

RIDDOR

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 require certain things to be reported to the HSE, and this sits on top of your own records rather than replacing them. Reportable categories include deaths, a defined list of specified injuries (fractures other than to fingers, thumbs and toes; amputations; serious burns; loss of consciousness from head injury or asphyxia, among others), over-seven-day incapacitation where a worker cannot do their normal work for more than seven consecutive days, certain occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences — near misses serious enough to report even though nobody was hurt.

Choosing a provider

Since 2013 the HSE no longer approves first aid training providers, which surprises people and means the responsibility for due diligence sits with the employer. In practice you are looking for one of three things: a provider working under a recognised awarding organisation (so the certificate is a regulated qualification), a member of a voluntary aid society — St John Ambulance, British Red Cross, St Andrew's First Aid — or a provider operating a recognised trade body membership. The HSE publishes guidance (GEO1) on selecting a provider. Expect roughly £60–£120 for a one-day EFAW course, and confirm current fees and the awarding organisation when you book.

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