Last updated: 6 January 2003

Start 2003 by adopting a "new wheel" which you (and 658 other offices) don't have to reinvent:  a proper Health and Safety policy for your constituency office.

The Commons Department of Finance and Administration has a helpful and authoritative 24 page booklet - Guide to health and safety arrangements for Members and their staff (April 2001). The Guide applies to Members and their staff only while on the parliamentary estate and many of the details, as the guide itself recognises, "may not be directly relevant to constituency offices".

With this in mind, we now offer you some suggested guidance for a constituency office health and safety policy which spells out the practical steps you need to take.  We are indebted to Kevin Morgan who works in the constituency office of Chris Bryant MP in Wales.  Kevin has a background in HSAW and wrote the original on which our suggested model is very heavily based.

We must emphasise that our suggested model has no force in law and is not officially authorised by the House authorities.  However, in the absence of something better, we know that many offices will find this useful - as a beginning.  You will need to do your own work on our model to tailor it to meet your own circumstances and to fulfil the requirements of Health and Safety legislation.

Click below now to access our suggested model HSAW Policy for constituency offices:

• as a Word Document (84 KB)

• in a PDF version (35 KB)

The Department of Finance and Administration's Health and Safety web page can be found (on PDVN) at:   http://cfinw01/fanda/ochealth.htm   Their Guide to health and safety arrangements for Members and their staff is available in hardcopy only - from F&A Dept. 

For the House of Commons Personnel Advisory Service website (also on PDVN) go to:  http://cfinw01/fanda/pmatters/pas/persmp.htm