H&S policy and risk assessment review
A read-through of your written health and safety policy and risk assessments to check they still match how the venue actually operates, updating anything that has changed.
A read-through of your written health and safety policy and risk assessments to check they still match how the venue actually operates, updating anything that has changed.
HSE expects risk assessments to stay "suitable and sufficient" for your current operation — a policy written for opening day is not automatically still accurate after two years, a menu change and a refit.
Walk the floor and kitchen with the existing risk assessments in hand and mark up anything that has changed.
Who this is for
Every venue with employees — a written policy is a legal requirement once you have 5 or more staff, but reviewing it is good practice regardless of size.
What you’ll hold
- Updated H&S policy with a review date
- Updated risk assessments with review dates and sign-off
- A record of what was changed and why
Watch out for
- Reviewing the policy document but not the risk assessments underneath it — the assessments are the part that actually goes out of date.
- No review date written on the document, so nobody can tell whether it is current.
- Treating the annual review as the only trigger — a new fryer or a layout change should prompt an update immediately, not wait for the anniversary.
Sources
- HSE — Risk assessment checked 2026-09-02
See also
- H&S policy, risk assessments, first aid and the poster— this becomes part of getting open →
This is item 27 of 60 in the free UK Compliance Calendar. See the whole list →