Does Health and Safety legislation apply to volunteers working for charities?

Where any organisation has at least one paid employee, it is considered to be an 'employer' for the purposes of the HSW Act and the regulations made under it.

Health and safety legislation applies to all businesses, including third sector employers such as voluntary organisations, charities, social enterprises and not for profit businesses. All these employers have the same health and safety duties as any private sector employer in the same circumstances.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (ISBN 0717624889 - available from HSE Books) place a duty on both employers and the self-employed to assess the risks to employees and anyone else (e.g. voluntary workers, clients and customers) who may be affected by the work activities being undertaken. As a result of this assessment, appropriate preventive and protective measures have to be taken to reduce the risks identified if they are not being adequately controlled at present. Some of the regulations listed later describe specific protective and preventive measures that have to be taken in certain circumstances or when undertaking particular activities.

In general, the same health and safety standards should be applied to voluntary workers as they would to employees exposed to the same risks. However, if the risk assessment shows that the risks to voluntary workers are different, the preventive and protective measures taken should reflect the different risks.
HSE considers it good practice for a volunteer user to provide the same level of health and safety protection as they would in an employer/employee relationship, irrespective of whether there are strict legal duties.

Charity and voluntary organisations, many do not have access to professional health and safety advice and are unsure of what is required of them. Here we cover the main aspects of health and safety that most charity and voluntary organisations will need to be aware of in order to meet their legal duties.

We will look at specific health and safety subjects and gives a general introduction followed by a series of practical case studies and guidance. We will explain legal duties, how to manage health and safety and how to assess risks.

Some useful links :

Charities Act 1993

Child Protection Acts

Childrens Act 1989

Disability & Equality Act

Equality Act 2010