Policy statement of intent
At UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), our mission to enrich lives through research and innovation depends on the wellbeing of everyone who contributes to our work. That’s why health, safety and wellbeing are fundamental to how we operate and are non-negotiable.
Our goal is simple: everyone should go home safe and well at the end of each day. We achieve this by fostering a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging openness, and learning from incidents and near misses. Safe systems of work and a shared commitment to safety are crucial to this.
As Chief Executive Officer, I am personally committed to this policy and accountable to the UKRI Board for its delivery.
This responsibility is shared across our leadership and cascades through our organisation. Whether you’re an employee, contractor, tenant or facility user, your safety matters, and we all have a role to play.
I and the Executive Chairs are committed to:
- maintaining a pragmatic, positive and open culture where health, safety and wellbeing (at work) is recognised by all employees to be a fundamental element in all that we do
- complying with, and where possible exceeding, all our legal and regulatory obligations for health and safety in the UK and overseas
- maintaining a health and safety management system which sets health and safety objectives and targets; this includes assigning clear health and safety management responsibilities
- provide adequate resources necessary to deliver the health and safety management system
- identify the hazards and assess the risks created by our activities, and so far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate, control or mitigate against those risks
- implementing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities as far as reasonably practicable, to ensure that everyone can work safely and effectively
- appoint competent people to provide specialist health and safety advice
- provide our employees and contracted workers with the information and training necessary for them to carry out their jobs safely
- consult with our employees, collaborators and union-appointed safety representatives on health, safety and wellbeing matters
- ensure the health and safety of all contractors, tenants, collaborators, facility users and visitors (including visiting scientists and students) to all our locations
- support our employees and others in creating a safe and respectful workplace culture, where they feel safe and empowered to challenge respectfully and call out unwanted behaviours
- adopt a duty of care at all times (24 hours, seven days a week) for our employees and others working on our stations, ships, in the field and when travelling for work (excluding travelling to and from the contracted place of work)
- review our health and safety performance at regular intervals to provide assurance and drive continual improvement
Through collaboration, consultation and continual improvement, we aim to protect everyone involved in UKRI’s work, wherever and however they contribute. Because nothing is more important than safety.
Professor Sir Ian Chapman, Chief Executive Officer.
1. Purpose
1.1 This policy sets out the approach to health and safety across UKRI, together with the arrangements and responsibilities for managing health and safety. UKRI will maintain a safe and healthy working environment for its employees.
1.2 This policy applies to all constituent parts of UKRI (councils, centres, laboratories and institutes) their employees and those working on UKRI sites, including:
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Innovate UK
- Medical Research Council (MRC)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
- Research England
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
- professional services and international offices
2. Arrangements for health and safety
Federated Health and Safety Model
2.1 UKRI’s health and safety management system is based on the ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ cycle. UKRI is the legal entity for health and safety matters and, therefore, has an overarching safety management system in place, supplemented by individual councils’ and Operational Leadership Team’s (OLT) own arrangements.
System documentation
2.2 Policy: this document, covering policy, organisation and arrangements. Supporting this UKRI policy is a series of health and safety codes relating to workplace hazards which identify relevant legislation and published guidance and set out any UKRI-specific definitions or requirements.
2.3 Local arrangements: in addition to the overall health and safety framework maintained for UKRI as a single legal entity, management of health and safety is the responsibility of Executive Chairs and their OLT equivalents for their respective areas. They are to put in place safety management systems to meet their legal duty, to ensure the health and safety of their employees and ensure that they align with UKRI requirements. The management systems must follow with the agreed federated health and safety management structure.
2.4 Local health and safety arrangements should be initially consulted by employees requiring any advice or guidance on health and safety matters.
Figure 1: UKRI federated health and safety model
The federated framework for health and safety, showing which parts of UKRI are responsible for health and safety in different councils, centres and departments.
Co-operation with others
2.5 As an employer, UKRI owes a legal duty of care to our employees for their health, safety and welfare wherever they work (including working at home and travelling for work), and to others who may be affected by our undertaking. To discharge this duty of care everyone needs to be aware of, understand and comply with their responsibilities under the law and the expectations of the CEO, as set out in this policy statement and reflected in health and safety codes and local arrangements. Others include contractors, tenants, facility users, students and visitors who use our estate and are also required to cooperate with us on health and safety matters.
2.6 Where UKRI personnel work on or attend others’ sites we will cooperate with the host organisation’s health and safety arrangements.
2.7 Where UKRI is a shareholder, or has equivalent status, in non-UKRI facilities or sites in the UK or overseas, we will endeavour to ensure that such facilities are operated to local or UK standards, whichever is more stringent; subject to our shareholding influence.
Employee consultation
2.8 UKRI is committed to consultation with employees on health and safety matters not only to meet our legal obligations, but also because those at the local level often understand what affects their health and safety and what will and will not work in strengthening health and safety management arrangements. This forms part of local health and safety consultation across UKRI in line with the federated health and safety management systems that operate. Employee consultation is based on The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977.
2.9 At UKRI, health and safety consultation is achieved through the operation of the UKRI Health and Safety Consultation Committee (HSCC) and local health and safety consultation that follows the federated health and safety management arrangements that are in place. As employee engagement should occur at all levels within the organisation, it is for individual councils (centres, laboratories and sites) and OLT to implement their own arrangements for employee consultation within the framework of the UKRI health and safety policy, and in collaboration with employees and their safety representatives. Local arrangements should be in line with the overall UKRI health and safety policy and federated health and safety management structure. If health and safety issues are identified that cannot be resolved at a local level, then they may be elevated to the Health and Safety Management Committee (HSMC) via local arrangements or their equivalent. Ultimately, a UKRI HSCC meeting can be convened.
3. Roles and responsibilities
Chief Executive Officer
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) exercises responsibility, on behalf of the UKRI Board, for meeting the UKRI’s legal health and safety obligations and for resolving any conflict that may arise between the demands of health and safety requirements and the demands of UKRI operations. The CEO is ultimately responsible for ensuring the provision of competent and sufficient resource to implement this policy.
The CEO delegates authority for health and safety management across UKRI, via the management chain to individual councils’ Executive Chairs (ECs) and their OLT equivalents who have the responsibility to establish suitable, sufficient and proportionate arrangements (including sufficient access to competent advice) to discharge this UKRI health and safety policy for their area of authority.
The CEO delegates to the Chief Financial Officer, as the chair of the HSMC, leadership on Health and Safety matters at UKRI’s Executive Committee (ExCo) to ensure health and safety implications of ExCo decisions are given due consideration and ensure significant HSMC concerns are raised at ExCo.
Chief Financial Officer
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) acts as the point of focus and lead for the Executive Committee (ExCo) consideration of health and safety matters and ensure health and safety implications of ExCo decisions are given due consideration.
The CFO ensures that an effective UKRI health and safety committee structure is established, reporting to ExCo, that ensures the formulation of UKRI wide health and safety policy and arrangements and strategic direction on health and safety matters.
The CFO ensures, via the effective operation of the health and safety committee structure, that:
- this health and safety policy is regularly reviewed
- goals to drive improvement in UKRI health and safety performance are established
- consultation on UKRI health and safety matters is in place
- UKRI health and safety performance is regularly reviewed
- assurance on the effectiveness of health and safety management is provided to both the ExCo and the Audit, Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC)
The CFO may delegate these responsibilities when required.
Executive Chairs and their OLT equivalents
Responsibilities include to:
- put in place and operate proportionate arrangements, including access to competent health and safety advice, to implement UKRI health and safety policy within their respective area of responsibility
- deliver health and safety management via the management chain
- demonstrate their visible and active leadership of health and safety, reflecting this both in ‘what they say’ and ‘what they do’ to drive improvement to safety culture
- establish a Health and Safety Consultation Committee, or similar forum, for their area of responsibility to assist in the formulation of and consultation on health and safety management arrangements, improvement objectives and review of health and safety performance
- receive and, where needed, act on health and safety performance information, including the outcomes of audits and incident investigation reports
- ensure adequate resources (time, money and people) are provided to implement UKRI health and safety policy
- cooperate with others on health and safety matters, particularly where they are located on others’ sites, and with the UKRI Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Lead
- appoint sufficient competent health and safety advisors commensurate (both in terms of number and competence) with the hazard profile of the operations they undertake (councils or OLT may choose to share such advisors where they are co-located, face common health and safety hazards, or the specialist nature of the hazard warrants a shared resource)
- create a psychologically safe environment where team members feel comfortable and confident, speaking their minds without fear of negative consequences
- provide assurance to the CEO and CFO that health and safety management systems are in place and effective in their area of responsibility
Managers
Responsibilities include to:
- assess and manage health and safety risks from their activities
- confirm that effective controls are in place
- ensure employees and contractors working for them understand the risks to which they may be exposed and that they work safely
- identify changes and assess their impact for risk to health and safety
- investigate the root causes of incidents and take appropriate corrective and preventative actions
- consult employees or their trade union safety representatives on risk assessments and other health and safety related issues; involve them in health and safety incident investigation as recommended good practice
- access and follow competent advice from health and safety advisors
- monitor, report and review performance
- identify and address workplace factors, which can lead to occupational ill health
- support appointed safety representatives by allowing them reasonable time to carry out their functions and attend training
Employees, tenants, students, facility users and contractors
Responsibilities include to:
- understand the health and safety risks from their work activities
- understand and follow the controls in place at all times
- actively participate in the continual improvement of health and safety
- report all health and safety incidents for example, accident, near miss, occupational health (physical or psychological) or concerns or improvement using incident reporting portals
UKRI Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) lead
Responsibilities include to:
- formulate and propose UKRI health and safety strategy, policy and arrangements that constitute the UKRI health and safety Management System with operational science councils and office estate health and safety Leads
- provide competent health and safety advice and guidance both corporately and wherever needed within the organisation
- manage any UKRI corporate health and safety risk register and reviewing this to maintain corporate awareness of health and safety risks across the organisation
- work across functions (HR, Legal, Estates etc.) and with Councils to promote and engender a positive safety culture within UKRI
- work with trade union safety representatives regarding any health and safety issues escalated to the UKRI HSMC and HSCC
- have direct access to the CEO as required and ensure any major incidents or events are notified to UKRI senior managers
- work in cooperation with other health and safety advisors, sharing lessons learned and best practice
Health and safety advisors
Responsibilities include to:
- ensure a proportionate, coherent, documented health and safety management system, meeting legislative and UKRI policy requirements is implemented and maintained
- provide advice and guidance to managers to allow them to discharge their health and safety responsibilities
- collate and report health and safety performance information for their respective teams
- have direct access to their respective Executive Chair or their OLT equivalent
- maintain their professional competence and, where encountering hazards outside of this, coordinate provision of specialist competence
Trades union safety representatives
UKRI have partnership agreements with our recognised trades union who, in accordance with the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, are entitled to appoint safety representatives. Safety representatives may represent all employees regardless of their trades union membership. The functions and rights of safety representatives are enshrined in law.
Trade union safety representatives, via their activities, have an important contribution to make to the continuous improvement to health, safety and welfare across UKRI.
4. Definitions
Duty of care: UKRI’s duty to protect the occupational health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by our business. We must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this
Health and safety management system: a framework, set of guidelines that helps to manage health and safety in the workplace in a methodical way.
Health, safety and wellbeing: in the context of this policy it is occupational or whilst ‘at work’. This includes when working from home, travelling for work and working at a UKRI or any other location. This does not include travelling to and from your contracted place of work.
5. Reporting and management requirements
5.1 Governance of health and safety management and performance is exercised via the UKRI health and safety committee structure. Each are responsible for maintaining their terms of reference.
Key UKRI health and safety committees
5.2 The UKRI Health and Safety Management Committee (HSMC): a sub-committee of the UKRI ExCo, the committee:
- sets the policy and strategy for health and safety management across UKRI
- receives and considers performance reports
- agrees actions to improve performance and develop the UKRI’s safety culture
The chair of the committee reports to the ExCo and provides information and reports to the ARAC.
5.3 The UKRI Health and Safety Consultation Committee (HSCC): this committee is constituted to fulfil the requirements for the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, as amended, to consult with employees’ representatives on health and safety matters across UKRI.
5.4 The UKRI Health and Safety Advisors Working Group (HSAWG): this working group brings together UKRI health and safety advisors to enable detailed review and formulation of arrangements, sharing of experience and best practice. It supports delivery of UKRI health and safety initiatives and promotes the establishment of a professional health and safety community.
6. Approval and review
6.1 This policy is subject to review and re-affirmation at least annually, or more frequently as determined by organisational change, legislation or other significant factors, by the UKRI CEO via the health and safety governance structure. This policy is to be communicated to all employees and is available via the UKRI website.