Bringing in Contractors
Information to Employers who Send in their Staff
The employer must ensure, when any employee from an outside undertaking is working in his undertaking, that the employer of that employee is provided with comprehensible information on:
Instructions and Information to Workers Brought in
The employer must ensure, when an employee from an outside undertaking or a self-employed contractor is working in his undertaking, that the worker is provided with:
Duties Of The Self-Employed
Similar duties to those above fall on self-employed persons who bring in to their workplaces:
Reciprocal Information
Unless the work is of a duration for which the workplace sharing rules also apply, there is no requirement under the Management Regulations for the incoming contractor to provide information to the host. However, employers of workers being sent in (and self-employed workers being brought in) have a general duty in the Health and Safety at Work Act as regards the protection of non-employees. This duty includes providing the host employer with information on risks to the host's employees from the work to be done at the host's site, and the health and safety and fire precautions he takes and/or that are needed to protect the host's employees from those risks.
In addition, the employer bringing in contractors should require advance information on the risks of the work involved and the precautions that are needed. In some cases a joint risk assessment at the site where the work is to be carried out will give both parties an opportunity to include health and safety condition in the contract.