The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 turn the 1974 Act’s general duties into a method. Regulation 3 is the one everyone quotes: every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees and to anyone else affected by the work.
What the regulations actually require
- A suitable and sufficient assessment, proportionate to the risk, identifying what could cause harm and what controls manage it. Not an encyclopaedia; a working document
- Recorded in writing where five or more are employed, the significant findings and any group especially at risk
- Reviewed when it may no longer be valid: the job changes, kit changes, something goes wrong
- Competent help (regulation 7): someone with the training, knowledge and experience to assess properly
Where hired welfare fits, the split that matters
When you hire a welfare unit, two assessments exist and neither replaces the other. We provide generic risk assessment information for the unit and its systems, generator, chemicals, towing, summarised on our risk assessments page and issued in full at handover. What we cannot assess is your site: the ground it stands on, the traffic route past it, the fire plan it sits inside, the crew using it. That site-specific assessment is yours under regulation 3, with our unit information as an input. Suppliers who imply their paperwork covers your duty are selling you an enforcement notice.
The practical standard
An inspector asking for your risk assessment wants to see that you identified the real risks of your job, chose sensible controls, told the people affected, and kept it current. Our delivery preparation guide covers the siting questions your assessment should answer before the unit lands.
Plain-English summary, not legal advice. MHSWR 1999 is at legislation.gov.uk. Our own insurances, accreditations and risk assessment register are published on our compliance page, and our written policies, including health and safety, quality, environmental and modern slavery, are at boxdhire.co.uk/policies.
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