PPE for all Workers

On 6^th April 2022, The Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendments) Regulations 2022 (PPE) come into force, but how will this affect you?

Currently, an employer has a duty to provide its employees with suitable and sufficient PPE free of charge, however; subcontractors and gig economy workers are not eligible for this.

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendments) Regulations 2022 (PPER 2022) extend the duties contained in regulations 4 to 11 of the PPER 1992 from employees to workers.  As defined in the regulations, a “worker” means an individual who has entered into works under either a contract of employment or any contract, where the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party.

So what does this mean?  If you’re engaging anyone to complete work on your behalf and there’s a requirement to wear PPE identified via a risk assessment, you must provide this to all “workers” free of charge.

Always keep a record of any PPE issued including signatures of the individual who received it too.