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22 Mar 2024

Rob Brown, co-director of Dalby Forest Cycle Hub, a not-for-profit hire scheme has been nominated for the Tourism Superstar 2024 award, run by VisitEngland.

21 Mar 2024

ACS (The Association of Convenience Stores) and the Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed) have both welcomed a new report published by the Association of Police and Crime...

21 Mar 2024

As reported by Healthstores UK, new data contained in the 2024 Soil Association Organic Market report shows that independent retailers delivered an impressive 10% growth in 2023, with...

21 Mar 2024

An independent bottle shop and bar in Cheltenham has been named as the UK's Independent Beer and Wine Retailer of the Year 2024 at the Drinks Retailing Awards. 

21 Mar 2024

A number of organisations, including Bira (the British Independent Retailers’ Association), other trade associations, BIDs and unions have met with officials from the Welsh Government to...

21 Mar 2024

The British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira) has reacted to data released by PwC and the Local Data Company exploring the state of the UK retail landscape.

8 Mar 2024

Daniel Blackham, editor of industry magazine BikeBiz, has been writing about his experience of completing the Cytech technical one qualification at training provider Spokes People in Milton...

6 Mar 2024

Cytech partner Activate Cycle Academy, the largest and most recognised training provider of bike maintenance and technical training courses to the UK’s cycle industry, recently welcomed a...

6 Mar 2024

The Greeting Card Association has reacted to a BBC Panorama programme lifting the lid on Royal Mail management prioritising parcel delivery over letters, which it says are in contradiction of...

4 Mar 2024

Pop star Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year's Record Store Day, on 20 April.

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Government releases Workplace Safety Guidance: can you continue to enforce mask wearing?

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News , Political News

Theface masks Government has now published the revised Workplace Safety Guidance as England moves to Step 4 of the covid-19 roadmap on 19th July. As outlined in previous updates, legal requirements to wear face coverings, engage in social distancing and limit contact have been removed. Instead people will be asked to make informed decisions and act carefully and proportionately, to manage the risks to themselves and others

The new Workplace Safety Guidance for Shops, Branches and Close Contact Services encourage business to undertake six priority actions:

  • Complete a health and safety risk assessment for stores
  • Provide adequate ventilation
  • Clean surfaces more often
  • Turn away customers or colleagues that have covid-19 symptoms
  • Enable people to check in using a Test and Trace QR code
  • Communicate your procedures to colleagues and customers

The guidance states that face coverings are no longer required by law but states that government expects and recommends that people continue to wear a face covering in crowed, enclosed spaces. On risk assessments the guidance outlines that employers have a legal requirement to carry out risk assessments and that Covid-19 is a workplace hazard that should be addressed in assessments. Interactive tools from the Health and Safety Executive ae available here to help you develop a risk assessment.

The guidance also places greater emphasis on the important of good ventilation, either through natural ventilation or mechanical ventilation such as fans or ducts. Its recommended that poor areas of ventilation are identified in risk assessments and options considered to increase air flow. The HSE have developed guidance on ventilation here.

Please note that the workplace safety guidance applies to England only. There are different regulations and guidance in place for Scotland and Wales.

 

Can you continue to enforce mask wearing? 

Businesses who want to enforce mask-wearing in future will face a number of competing responsibilities and duties:

  • Under the Equality Act 2010 they will have a duty not to discriminate against anyone wishing to use their services
  • However, they will also owe duties to their own employees and other customers including:
    - Duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to conduct their businesses in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their workers and customers
    - Potentially duties to make reasonable adjustments for vulnerable disabled employees or customers who may remain at higher risk from COVID-19.
The key step that businesses can take if they do want to continue with a mask wearing policy is therefore to think about their justification defence in advance. That will mean considering and clearly documenting the legitimate aim they wish to rely on and considering the proportionality of their approach. Key points to consider may be:
  • Obtaining scientific evidence on the level of risk posed by your business
  • Engaging with unions
  • An updated risk assessment of their premises, including infection control risks - for example a business with poor ventilation might be viewed differently to one with a state of the art ventilation system
  • Gauging/surveying customer opinion - if the majority of customers support a mask-wearing policy that should help show it is proportionate
  • Considering what exemptions will be allowed and how they will be applied
  • Staff training
  • Ensuring they know and understand their service users and employees - businesses with known vulnerable employees or service users may be in a stronger position to enforce the use of masks.

Overall, having a well thought out policy and ensuring consistency of treatment will be key to reducing the risk of claims.

 

Display in-store guidance

For ACT resources to display in-store regarding face coverings, social distancing and hand sanitising visit our website here.

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