Establish emergency procedures for your workplace

Your duty to plan for emergencies

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) require every employer to establish procedures for dealing with serious and imminent danger. This goes beyond fire safety to cover all workplace emergencies that could threaten your workers' health and safety.

Regulation 8 requires you to:

• Establish and implement procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger
• Nominate sufficient competent persons to implement evacuation procedures
• Restrict access to danger areas to those with adequate health and safety instruction

Regulation 9 requires you to arrange necessary contacts with external services, particularly for first aid, emergency medical care, and rescue work.

These duties apply from day one of employing anyone. You cannot wait until an emergency happens to determine how to respond.

Emergency types you must plan for

Many employers focus only on fire evacuation, but MHSWR requires procedures for all serious and imminent dangers. Depending on your workplace and activities, you may need to plan for:

• Fire, which the Fire Safety Order 2005 covers separately, though your MHSWR procedures should integrate with your fire safety arrangements
• Chemical spills and hazardous substance releases, especially if you use COSHH-controlled substances
• Leaks of natural gas, LPG or other hazardous gases
• Structural collapse or failure, such as building damage, scaffold failure or excavation collapse
• Severe weather, such as flooding, lightning strikes and extreme temperatures
• Workplace violence or intruders, including bomb threats and suspicious packages
• Medical emergencies, such as serious injuries, cardiac arrest and anaphylaxis
• Utility failures, such as power cuts affecting critical safety systems or water contamination
• Machinery failures, such as uncontrolled movements and pressure vessel ruptures

Your risk assessment should identify which emergency scenarios are reasonably foreseeable in your workplace. You must then have procedures to deal with each one.

Integration with the Fire Safety Order 2005

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places separate duties on responsible persons to assess fire risks and implement fire safety measures. Your MHSWR emergency procedures should work alongside - not duplicate - your fire safety arrangements.

The two sets of duties work together like this.

• Fire Safety Order 2005 covers fire-specific risk assessment, fire detection and warning, firefighting equipment, escape routes, and fire evacuation procedures
• MHSWR Regulations 8-9 cover the broader duty to have emergency procedures for all serious dangers, including but not limited to fire
• Your fire evacuation procedure can be part of your MHSWR emergency procedures, but MHSWR requires you to go further

If an emergency involves multiple hazards (for example, a fire causing a chemical release), your procedures should address how to manage the combined risks.

Nominating competent persons for evacuation

Regulation 8(1)(b) requires you to nominate a sufficient number of competent persons to implement evacuation procedures when emergency situations arise.

In practice, this means the following.

• You must have named individuals responsible for coordinating evacuation
• The number must be sufficient for your premises size, layout, and occupancy
• Cover must be available during all working hours, including shifts, weekends, and when regular nominees are absent
• Competence means they have received adequate training on the emergency procedures and can implement them effectively

Nominated persons typically take on these tasks.

• Activating the alarm or initiating evacuation
• Directing people to assembly points
• Checking that their designated areas are clear
• Accounting for all personnel at assembly points
• Liaising with emergency services on arrival
• Coordinating return to work when safe to do so

These individuals are often called fire wardens or marshals, but their role under MHSWR extends to all emergency situations, not just fire.

Worker protection rights in serious danger

Regulation 8(2) of MHSWR requires procedures that enable workers exposed to serious, imminent and unavoidable danger to:

• Stop work immediately
• Proceed directly to a place of safety

Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 separately protects employees from detriment for leaving, refusing to return to, or taking appropriate steps in response to serious and imminent danger. You cannot:

• Discipline workers for leaving their workstation during a genuine emergency
• Deduct pay for time spent evacuating
• Require workers to complete tasks before evacuating when facing serious danger
• Penalise workers who refuse to return to an area where danger still exists

Regulation 8(2)(c) reinforces this: employers cannot require workers to resume work in any situation where there is still a serious and imminent danger to health and safety, unless they have taken all steps necessary to safeguard health and safety.

Restricting access to danger areas

Regulation 8(1)(c) requires you to ensure that no person has access to any area to which it is necessary to restrict access on grounds of health and safety unless they have received adequate health and safety instruction.

Restricted areas include:

• Areas with specific hazards requiring specialist knowledge (chemical storage, electrical switchgear rooms)
• Confined spaces where entry requires specific training and permits
• Areas containing asbestos or other hazardous materials
• Construction zones on operating premises
• Areas affected by an ongoing emergency until declared safe

To restrict access:

• Clearly mark restricted areas with appropriate signage
• Use physical barriers where appropriate (locked doors, fencing)
• Maintain records of who has received instruction to enter each restricted area
• Implement permit-to-work systems for high-risk areas
• Brief visitors, contractors, and new staff on areas they cannot access

External service contacts (Regulation 9)

Regulation 9 requires you to arrange any necessary contacts with external services, particularly for:

• First aid: know where your nearest A&E department is and consider arrangements with an occupational health provider
• Emergency medical care: make sure anyone can call 999 immediately and give location details for ambulance access
• Rescue work: plan for confined space entry, work at height and any other situation where specialist rescue may be needed

Make these practical arrangements.

• Display emergency contact numbers prominently in your workplace
• Ensure all workers know how to summon emergency services
• Provide clear location information (postcode, access routes, landmarks) for emergency services
• If you have hazardous materials, ensure the fire service has information about what is stored and where (COMAH sites have additional requirements)
• For remote or unusual locations, consider what arrangements may be needed for helicopter access or extended response times
• If you have workers in confined spaces or at height, consider whether you need specialist rescue arrangements beyond what the fire service can provide

Testing and reviewing emergency procedures

Establishing procedures is not enough - you must ensure they work in practice. Regular testing helps identify problems before a real emergency occurs.

Test these:

• Evacuation drills - can everyone evacuate safely in a reasonable time?
• Alarm systems - can the alarm be heard throughout the premises?
• Assembly point procedures - is everyone accounted for?
• Communication systems - can nominated persons coordinate effectively?
• Emergency equipment - are fire extinguishers, first aid kits, spill kits accessible and in date?

Review your procedures:

• After any drill or real emergency - capture lessons learned
• When your workplace layout changes
• When new hazards are introduced
• When staff numbers or shift patterns change significantly
• At least annually even if nothing else has changed

Keep records of all drills, reviews, and any changes made to procedures.

Enforcement and penalties

MHSWR is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities. Failure to establish and implement proper emergency procedures is a criminal offence.

An inspector can serve an improvement notice requiring you to remedy the breach within a set time, or a prohibition notice stopping dangerous activities immediately. Serious breaches, and failures that contribute to harm, can lead to prosecution.

On conviction, the penalties are:

• in a magistrates' court, imprisonment, a fine or both (the fine is unlimited in England and Wales and up to £20,000 in Scotland)
• in the Crown Court, up to 2 years' imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both

Beyond legal penalties, inadequate emergency procedures can result in preventable injuries or deaths, civil compensation claims, reputational damage, and increased insurance premiums.