March 2025
Health and Safety (H&S) accidents can happen to businesses of all shapes and sizes as well as across any industry. Unfortunately, the larger organisations are often all too familiar with the protocol when accidents do happen and will hire internal Health and Safety Directors, Managers and Officers to handle the fallout. The priority needs to be safety of employees, but there are regulations that UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Law mandates that needs to be followed. So how does a business without an internal Health and Safety team know what to do? Luckily, there are plenty of resources readily available and the Harwood H&S Portal is here to help guide you through them.
Do all of my employees need to undergo health screenings?
Hi Lois,
I was just wondering if you knew if there was a legal requirement for us to do medical screening on our workers due to the noisy environment some of them work in and other risks.
Staff were offered a medical screening last year and those that said yes received them. Just wondered where we stand with this legally?
Thank-you
Jane – Auto’s&Co
Understanding Noise
Hi Jane,
This is a tricky one to answer without more context, but I will try my best to outline the steps.
There is a legal requirement by the employer to protect their workforce from harmful noise OR if the workforce is vulnerable to noise exposures, even if a healthy person wouldn’t be affected by it.
Harm from noise might be caused by gradual exposure to constant low-level noises over time or it might be caused by sudden, louder noises. The employer is responsible for both.
- Identifying whether the noise needs to be managed will be an essential part of their risk assessment (2) – especially if they recognise that they work in noisy environments.
- The risk assessment will dictate what actions will need to be taken to lower the risks associated with that noise.
- Such actions must include PPE such as hearing protection in the form of ear plugs or ear defenders. PPE is mandatory above 80dB and an employer is legally responsible for providing all PPE.
- If the risk assessment shows that there is a risk to health, then health surveillance is a legal requirement.
However, if the risk assessment shows that there is no such risk then health surveillance is not required. I would recommend that you review your risk assessment and compare it with the results of the last health surveillance report. If the last health surveillance reports highlights an impact on employee hearing as a result of workplace exposure, then it will be required that you continue to monitor, but prevention is still a primary requirement.
Don’t forget! We have courses on Noise available on the Portal. One for your Team here and one for Management here
All the best, Lois
