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The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations have been updated. We explain what changes have happened, why they’ve happened and a recap of responsibilities for both employee and employer.
The PPE Regulations 2022 have been updated to ensure the PPE duties both employer and employee are responsible for include the wider group of workers employed by a company. In summary the regulations now include casual workers, also known as ‘gig’ or ‘limb’ workers. These are employees that have temporary contracts or work freelance rather than have a permanent work contract. This has been the result of a high court ruling, which discovered that the UK Government had failed to implement EU directives to safely protect ‘gig’ and ‘limb’ workers to the same level as permanent staff. Note that the changes made for the PPERegulations 2022 does not apply to those who are self-employed.
The updated PPE Regulations, implemented from 6 April 2022, means that any business that requires its staff to have personal protective equipment, must now provide this free of charge to any worker, whether they are permanent or casual - again this does not include businesses that are brought onto a project on a temporary contract basis or those who are self employed.
A company must ensure that both employees and other workers (casual, limb, gig) are provided with the same level of PPE, ensuring it is compatible, maintained and stored correctly, and that adequate training for its use is provided.
Any worker that is classed as gig, limb or casual, must also follow the updated PPE Regulations 2022, in that they are responsible for ensuring correct use of the equipment, and must report any damages, defects, insufficiencies or losses to the employer as soon as discovered.
The HSE has provided guidance on providing PPE at work, which can be viewed in full here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/ppe/ppe-regulations-2022.htm
For advice and purchase of suitable personal protective equipment for your business in line with the updated PPE Regulations, call us here at Ardent Safety, we are Cumbria’s largest multi-accredited Workplace Health and Safety Consultancy and Training Company, offering an unrivalled consultancy support service as well as high-quality accredited training courses - including PPE.
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