All employers must have a safety policy. A good Health & Safety Policy spells out

The organisation - which should detail health and safety responsibilities. Key individuals or their job titles should be named, and responsibilities defined within a job description.

The arrangements - which should cover the systems and procedures in place for ensuring employees' health and safety.

The health and safety policy statement does not need to record the full details of all procedures, but can refer to other documentation such as risk assessments, training programmes, emergency instructions, etc. However, the policy statement should record the arrangements and procedures for how these matters are managed - which is a function of your employer.

Regulation 4 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 follows requirements to have a safety policy and says employers are required to make appropriate "arrangements" (with regard to the nature of their activities and the size of their undertaking) for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventative and protective measures.

For employers with five or more employees, the arrangements need to be recorded - just as they must have a written safety policy. Those with less then 5 employees do not need either the policy nor the procedures to be written. To qualify as having five or more employees, this refers to the "undertaking" rather than the "establishment". Undertaking" does not mean the same as "establishment". An employer can operate a number of small establishments, each employing less than five employees. If all the establishments form part of the same undertaking, and the total of employees is five or more, the employer must prepare a written health and safety policy, along with appropriate arrangements for the whole undertaking,