(What the law says about training)
The management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 say you have to provide health and safety training for people:
When they start work;
When their work responsibilities change;
Periodically if needed - for instance if their skills do not get used regularly;
That takes into account of any new or changed risks;
You must provide training during work hours and not at the expense of the people working for you.
People have training needs throughout their careers, but at these times their training needs will be greater than at others:
When they start working for you. All new starters need some form of induction training. They will all need to know the company's safety policy and the arrangements you have made to deal with health and safety matters. Young and inexperienced recruits may need a lot more than that.
When they are exposed to new or increased risks. Whenever something changes in the workplace, you should consider whether the risks have changed, and whether anyone needs extra training as a result. If the change makes the job safer, or doesn't change the risk, you don't have to provide extra health and safety training - though you may wish to provide training for other reasons.
Make sure that you provide Refresher Training when people need to bring their skills up to date, especially when the training relates to something they don't often do, such as dealing with emergencies. Make sure that training materials are kept up to date.
Reproduced by kind permission of HSE (INDG213)