Hot water

Anthony - hot water and a lock on the door should be provided. The Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992 state:

Washing facilities
21.—(1) Suitable and sufficient washing facilities, including showers if required by the nature of the work or for health reasons, shall be provided at readily accessible places.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1), washing facilities shall not be suitable unless—
(a) they are provided in the immediate vicinity of every sanitary convenience, whether or not provided elsewhere as well;
(b) they are provided in the vicinity of any changing rooms required by these Regulations, whether or not provided elsewhere as well;
(c) they include a supply of clean hot and cold, or warm, water (which shall be running water so far as is practicable);
(d) they include soap or other suitable means of cleaning;
(e) they include towels or other suitable means of drying;
(f) the rooms containing them are sufficiently ventilated and lit;
(g) they and the rooms containing them are kept in a clean and orderly condition; and
(h) separate facilities are provided for men and women, except where and so far as they are provided in a room the door of which is capable of being secured from inside and the facilities in each such room are intended to be used by only one person at a time.

I forgot to mention, there is no effective lock or bolt on the tiolet door.

At my workplace, a petrol station, we have an outside toilet which is effectively a public toilet because it is open 24/7 365. It has a basin with cold tap only, and we work alone for 7.5 and 8 hour shifts. We do have a kettle, does this meet the rquirements of H&S?

Kathryn

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require you to provide adequate washing facilities for staff, which includes the provision of hot and cold running water. However where you are faced with a situation which interrupts normal provision, you are required to make suitable alternative arrangements. In practice this will require you to provide some form of warm water for washing hands at easily accessible places within the workplace. Remember that if you choose to use a kettle or a wall mounted water heater then you need to make sure that your risk assessments are updated to ensure that the risk of scalds to staff is addressed.

We are a college due to have our boilers replaced in the summer, there will no no students or food preparation during this period only a skeleton of support/office staff working in the building. Is it a h&s legal requirement to provide hot water during the time?
Regards
Kathryn Maund
Capital project manager