Health, Safety and Welfare at Work
What the exam tests
This domain tests the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 as it applies to security work: employer duties, employee duties, risk assessment, and the hazards specific to guarding, door work and night shifts.
The framework
- Employer duties include safe systems of work, risk assessment, a written safety statement, information, training and supervision, emergency plans, and provision of personal protective equipment free of charge.
- Employee duties include complying with systems of work, using PPE, reporting hazards and defects, not being under the influence of drink or drugs, and attending training.
- Risk assessment follows a hierarchy: identify hazards, assess likelihood and severity, control (eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, then PPE last), record, and review.
- Common security hazards: violence and aggression, lone working, night work, slips and trips, manual handling, stress, and tasks in control rooms.
Worked example
A lone night guard reports repeated intruder sightings at an isolated industrial site. Reasoning: this is a foreseeable violence risk requiring control, not heroics. Measures include two-person cover at known high-risk times, regular radio checks with a control point, varied patrol routes, CCTV monitoring, and a documented report-and-observe policy that forbids physical confrontation. The risk assessment is updated and the safety statement amended before the next shift.
Mark-losing traps
- Expecting the employer to charge staff for PPE.
- Believing an operative must physically intervene regardless of personal risk.
- Failing to report a near miss because nobody was hurt.
- Ignoring lone working when assessing risk.