Health and Safety Issues for the Self Employed: Gym Instructors

There’s a lot of confusion about the changes to Health and Safety legislation relating to the self employed. A few years ago, a report was undertaken which indicated that self employed people who pose no risk to others should be excluded from Health and Safety legislation, unless they were engaged in certain high risk activities. The government has implemented this legislation with a series of complex sets of regulations which most self employed people find it difficult to understanding.

In the simplest terms, the self employed are now excluded from some Health and Safety legislation if they pose no risk to others and if they’re not engaged in specific activities which are listed in the regulations. These include activities such as construction, agriculture and asbestos removal.

If you’re self employed, you need to decide whether or not you’re working in an activity that poses a risk to anyone else. For example, self employed gym instructors are still be covered by Health and Safety legislation, because they put others at risk in terms of the way they instruct them and the way the guide them – even though their clients have decided to take a class or undertake the training. There is a risk to organisations that operate large facilities, such as a number of gyms or fitness centres. Self employed instructors might be under the impression that they don’t have to take care or responsibility for what they do or that they don’t have to comply with legislation and this is wrong. They are responsible.

This issue needs to be considered on an individual basis. For many self employed people, Health and Safety legislation is quite simple with little required in terms of records and risk assessment statements. There is no requirement for written policy statements unless you employ five or more people. However, each case is individual and depends on the time of work you are doing and who else it might affect.

The Health and Safety Executive website has a series of good guidance for particular types of individuals in terms of what they need to do from a basic Health and Safety point of view. If you need clarification for your particular situation, do get in touch with Quadriga and we can easily advise you. Call us on 0118 929 9920 or click here to contact us.