The UK’s health & Safety Executive has this to say on the subject:
“The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) requires you to provide whatever information, instruction and training is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of your employees.
If training is identified as part of a control measure and relates to safety (for example moving and handling, dealing with challenging behaviour, or fire training) attendance must be treated as work time and should take place during working hours. If it is necessary to arrange training outside an employee’s normal hours, this should be treated as an extension of time at work. Special arrangements may be needed for part-timers or shift workers.
Section 9 of HSWA prohibits employers from charging employees for anything they have to do in respect of carrying out specific requirements of the relevant statutory provisions. The requirement to provide health and safety training is such a provision and employees should not therefore be required to pay for their own training.”
(Extracted from: http://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/faqs.htm?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=guidance-push&utm_content=health-social-care )
Further information
To optimise the time taken to train and at an extremely economic cost why not consider the online training courses on offer from Collaton Consultancy? Starting at £15 (+vat) per course and taking as little as 25 minutes these courses are concise and up-to-date with the training your staff need.
Collaton Consultancy are a company dedicated to managing work place health issues such as Legionnaires’ disease and Pseudomonas infections as well as water treatment concerns. We also act as Expert Witness where required.
