Upcoming changes to PPE Legislation
On 6 April 2022, the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (PPER 2022) will come into force and amend the 1992 Regulations (PPER 1992). Under PPER 2022, the types of duties and responsibilities on employers and employees under PPER 1992 will remain unchanged but will extend to limb (b) workers, as defined in PPER 2022.
PPER 1992 places a duty on all employers to ensure that suitable PPE is provided to all employees who may be exposed to risks to their health & safety at work.
The idea of these legislative changes is to extend the Health & Safety responsibilities of employers when it comes to PPE in order to take into account a broader definition of ‘worker’ and require employers to provide PPE to these workers at no cost.
As a result, the regulations now take into account those workers who:
- Have a contract of employment - These are ‘employees’ who are covered by Section 2 of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 and also by the existing PPE regulations. There are no changes to the duties to employees under the amendments, therefore employers must continue to provide employees with PPE in line with the risks identified within their risk assessments, at no cost.
- May not have a formalised contract of employment - The regulations now account for workers who may not have a formalised contract of employment and who are engaged in a more ‘casual’ way.
To summarise the main reason for these changes to legislation, all workers must now be provided with PPE and trained on using that PPE, unless they are genuinely self-employed.
More information about the upcoming PPE legislation changes and definitions can be found on the HSE website.
What does this mean for iHASCO’s PPE Training course?
We will make minor changes to our PPE Training course on April 5th, which is the day before the new legislation comes into force, so our course will continue to fully align with the updated regulations when they come into effect on the 6th.
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