Loler, riddor, coshh,

[Rupe]

looking to employ just myself but obviously i have subby grundworkers, not made mind up on insurance yet

 

You dont need insurance from yourself, but you could get a personal accident poilicy if you wanted, as long as it includes "at work" and that included treework.

 

If you have "subby" groundworkers then they are employed by you, even if just for the day and even if they are self employed, you still have a duty of care to them and there is a requirement for you to have EL insurance to cover your liability for that duty of care. So if a requirement of yor EL is to have a written coshh assessment (and adhere to what it says) then you must have one. Riddor is much less likely to be needed.

 

 

 

The main mistake people make, which I try and get accross, is hiring people in with their own insurance does not make up for your own lack of EL insurance. A "subby" with PL just means you have two people on site with a PL policy (assuming you are going to have PL insurance) so its a waste of time and money, only one person can be in charge of the job and thats the person who needs the PL.

[treequip]

Yes, actually I agree, they do. But there is still very little "trouble" you can get into. Unless you are reported to them, and they come and carry out an inpsection,they dont go round giving people a telling off. so for a one man band doing tree private tree work there is no trouble to get into.

 

And not having coshh or riddor provision for yourself is the last thing you would get pulled up on.

 

Agreed, but twice in the past I have been caught up in a visit on a building site, once I was there to give a quote so got a free pass, the second time they wanted to see all the paperwork and then some

[Rupe]

Yes, building sites are the only time I've had any kind of safety person question our methods but in my case that was from safety officers employed by the construction companies and not Hse.

 

Construction sites are, quite rightly, a different situation and for someone just setting up they are not something to worry about yet, so I still stand by what I say, there is virtually no "trouble" you can get into by doing private work without things like coshh and definitely don't need to worry about riddor.

[tommytopsoil]

is it really all needed?

 

Three words:

 

"Fee for intervention"

 

You decide.