Published on: 12 August 2021
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is making amendments to the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations (PPEWR) 1992. This means that all employers will have a duty to provide *limb (b) workers with the same health and safety protections in respect of personal protective equipment (PPE) as they do currently for employees.
There is a consultation which aims to understand the impact on stakeholders and businesses of extending the scope of the employers’ duties under the PPEWR to workers and not only employees. The link for this and the PPEWR can be found below.
The consultation can be accessed here and the PPEWR is viewable here.
*Limb (b) workers: the definition according to the HSE website.
A ‘limb (b) worker’ can be understood as a ‘dependent contractor’. A ‘worker’ is registered as self-employed but provides a service as part of someone else’s business. They generally must carry out the work personally, rather than being able to send someone in their place.