Mandatory training is training the law requires an employer to give. Every employer must give health and safety training when someone starts and when their risks change, and fire safety training. Other training becomes compulsory with the work: lifting, using equipment, working at height, disturbing asbestos, handling hazardous substances. The general duties do not list courses by name.
On this page
What "mandatory" means in law
Health and safety law puts a duty on the employer to give training that is adequate for the work. The general duties do not list courses, name providers or set a syllabus. That is why two firms doing different work can both be meeting the law with very different training.
It helps to keep three levels apart, because they are often sold as one.
- The law requires it. A regulation says "shall" or "must". This is the only level that is compulsory in the legal sense, and it is what this page means by "must".
- HSE guidance says you should. Guidance fills in the detail a regulation leaves open, such as how long a first aid certificate lasts. This page says "should" or "HSE recommends" for these.
- A sector or a customer expects it. A card scheme, an accredited course, a client's list. It may be a condition of the contract. It is not a legal duty in itself.
This guide covers Great Britain. Fire safety law differs between England and Wales and Scotland, and that is noted where it matters.
Training every employer must give
Four duties apply whatever your business does.
Health and safety training for every employee. Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for the health and safety of employees, so far as is reasonably practicable. Regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says when. Employees must be given adequate health and safety training:
- when they are recruited
- when they are transferred or given a change of responsibilities
- when new work equipment is introduced or existing equipment is changed
- when new technology is introduced
- when a new system of work is introduced or an existing one is changed
The training must be repeated periodically where appropriate, adapted to new or changed risks, and take place during working hours. HSE adds that it must be free for employees. For the first of those occasions, see our guide to the health and safety induction.
Fire safety training for every employee. In England and Wales, article 21 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person, usually the employer, to give employees adequate safety training when they are first employed and when their risks change. It must cover the precautions and actions the employee should take, be repeated periodically where appropriate and take place during working hours. In Scotland the same duty is in regulation 20 of the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
First-aid provision. This one is a duty to provide first aid, not to train everybody. Regulation 3 of the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 requires equipment, facilities and people that are "adequate and appropriate in the circumstances". HSE's guidance is that the minimum is a stocked first-aid kit, an appointed person to take charge of the arrangements, and information for employees. An appointed person needs no formal training. If your first-aid needs assessment says you need a first-aider, that person must be trained.
Information. Regulation 10 of the Management Regulations requires you to give employees information they can understand on the risks found by your risk assessment, the precautions, and the emergency procedures.
Low-risk workplaces. HSE's guidance is that if you are a low-risk business, such as an office, providing simple information or instructions is likely to be enough. The duty is to give adequate training, and what is adequate depends on the risk.
Common training and its legal basis
The first three rows apply to every employer. The rest apply where the work involves the hazard. In each case the wording is the regulation's own requirement, shortened.
| Training | The law | What it requires, and for whom |
|---|---|---|
| Health and safety training, including induction | Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2. Management Regulations 1999, regulation 13 | Must. Every employee, on recruitment and when risks change. Repeated periodically where appropriate. |
| Fire safety | Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 21 (England and Wales) | Must. Every employee, when first employed and when risks change. Repeated periodically where appropriate. |
| First aid | Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, regulation 3 | Must provide adequate and appropriate first-aid equipment, facilities and people. Anyone you rely on as a first-aider must be trained. Not every workplace needs one. |
| Manual handling | Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, regulation 4 | Must avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable, assess what remains and reduce the risk. The regulation has no separate training clause. HSE lists training in safe lifting among the ways to reduce the risk, and regulation 13 applies. |
| Work equipment: machinery, power tools, lift trucks | Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 9 | Must. Everyone who uses work equipment, and anyone who supervises or manages its use, must have had adequate training in how to use it, the risks and the precautions. |
| Work at height | Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 5 | Must be competent, or be supervised by a competent person while being trained. This covers organising, planning and supervising the work as well as doing it. The law asks for competence, not a named course. |
| Asbestos awareness | Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, regulation 10 | Must. Any employee who is liable to be exposed to asbestos, and their supervisors. In practice that means maintenance and building trades. Given at regular intervals. |
| Hazardous substances | Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, regulation 12 | Must. Any employee whose work is liable to expose them to a hazardous substance: what the substances are, the risks, the findings of the assessment and the precautions. |
| Personal protective equipment | Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, regulation 9 | Must. Any worker given PPE must be told what it protects against, how to use it and how to look after it. |
| Noise | Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, regulation 10 | Must. Employees exposed at or above the lower exposure action value, which is a daily or weekly exposure of 80 dB(A) or a peak of 135 dB(C). |
| Display screen equipment | Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, regulation 6 | Must. "Users", which HSE describes as people who use screens daily for continuous periods of an hour or more. Training in the use of their workstation before they start, and again if it is substantially changed. |
| Construction site induction | Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulations 13 and 15 | Must. The principal contractor must make sure a suitable site induction is provided. A contractor must provide one where the principal contractor has not. |
The table is not every training duty in law. Specialist hazards have their own regulations with their own training duties. If your work includes one, read the regulation or ask a competent person.
How often training should be refreshed
The general rule is in regulation 13: training must be "repeated periodically where appropriate". The fire training duty uses the same words. Neither gives a number of months or years, so for most training you set the period yourself.
A few have a period in HSE guidance.
- First aid. HSE's guidance is that certificates last three years. It strongly recommends a yearly refresher for first-aiders and says plainly that the yearly refresher is not mandatory.
- Asbestos awareness. The regulation says "at regular intervals". HSE says there is no legal requirement to repeat a whole formal awareness course every 12 months, but some form of refresher should be given as necessary.
- Work with asbestos. For people who do non-licensed or licensed work with asbestos, HSE says refresher training should be provided every year.
- Lift trucks. HSE says there is no specific period, and gives three to five years as an example of a set interval an employer might choose.
Whatever period you set, refresh sooner when the job, the equipment or the method changes, when someone has not used a skill for some time, and after an accident or near miss. Our guide to how long training certificates last goes through the common courses one by one.
What sectors and customers expect
This is where most of the confusion comes from. The law asks for adequate training and competence. Industries have built schemes that show it, and customers ask for those schemes by name.
- Operator certificates. HSE says there is no such thing as a lift-truck licence, and no legal requirement for a training certificate. It encourages certificates as a good way of showing the training was given.
- Asbestos certificates. HSE says there is no legal requirement for employees to hold a certificate of training before they work with asbestos, and that a certificate is not proof of competence.
- Ladders. HSE lists "you need to be formally qualified before using a ladder at work" among its work at height myths. The requirement is competence.
- Site cards. Regulation 15 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 requires a worker on a construction site to have, or be gaining, the necessary skills, knowledge, training and experience. It names no card. A principal contractor can still make a card a condition of coming on to the site.
These expectations are real. If a client's contract says every operative holds a named ticket, you need the ticket to do the work. It is still worth knowing which level you are dealing with when a course is described as mandatory.
Statutory and mandatory training in health and social care
In health and social care the phrase has an everyday meaning of its own: the set of subjects every member of staff is expected to complete and keep in date, usually written as "statutory and mandatory training". Statutory is generally used for training a law requires. Mandatory is used for training the employer, the commissioner or the regulator expects on top of that.
For registered care providers the legal hook is regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: staff must receive the training, supervision and appraisal necessary for them to carry out their duties. Like the health and safety duties, it lists no subjects. The lists come from sector bodies. Skills for Care publishes a statutory and mandatory training guide for adult social care employers.
The health and safety duties on this page apply to a care provider as they do to any employer. There is more on our page for care homes.
How to work out what your people need
- Start from your risk assessments. HSE's guidance is that everyone needs the right level of information on the hazards, the risks, the measures in place and the emergency procedures.
- List it by role, not by person. What does a warehouse operative need? A supervisor? Someone in the office?
- Check each role against the table above. Lifting, equipment, height, substances, noise, screens.
- Add what customers and schemes require. Mark these as contract requirements so you know why each one is there.
- Set a refresher period for each course and write down why you chose it.
- Record who has done what, and when. HSE's advice is that keeping training records will help you decide if refresher training is needed.
The result is a list of roles with the training each one needs, which is the starting point for a training matrix.
Keeping it in SafetyPro360
In SafetyPro360 each role lists the training courses it requires, and each course has a length in months or is marked as never expiring. Each person is given their role or roles. Training records hold who did which course and when, with the expiry date worked out from the course's length. The training matrix then shows every person against every course a role requires: in date, running out within 30 days, expired, or required and missing. The product does not decide what is mandatory for your business. You set the requirements and it shows the gaps.
Questions people ask
What training is mandatory for all employees in the UK?
Every employer in Great Britain must give employees adequate health and safety training when they are recruited and when their risks change, and fire safety training when they are first employed. Every employer must also make first-aid arrangements and tell employees what they are. Beyond that, what is compulsory depends on the work: manual handling, work equipment, work at height, asbestos, hazardous substances, noise and display screens each have their own regulation.
How often should health and safety training be refreshed?
The law says training must be repeated periodically where appropriate and gives no fixed period. HSE guidance gives three years for first aid certificates, yearly refreshers for people who work with asbestos, and three to five years as an example for lift-truck operators. For everything else the employer sets the period, and refreshes sooner when the job, equipment or method changes.
Is manual handling training a legal requirement?
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers to avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable, assess what cannot be avoided and reduce the risk. They contain no separate training clause. HSE lists training in safe lifting as one way to reduce the risk, and the general duty to train employees for the risks of their work applies. HSE also says training will not make manual handling safe on its own.
Is fire safety training mandatory?
Yes. In England and Wales, article 21 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires employees to be given adequate fire safety training when they are first employed and when their risks change, repeated periodically where appropriate and during working hours. Scotland has the same duty in the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Neither sets a fixed interval for repeating it.
Does every workplace need a trained first aider?
No. The law requires first-aid provision that is adequate and appropriate for your circumstances. HSE says the minimum is a stocked first-aid kit, an appointed person to take charge of the arrangements and information for employees, and that an appointed person needs no formal training. Workplaces with more significant risks, such as machinery or hazardous materials, are more likely to need a trained first-aider.
Is a training certificate required by law?
Usually not. The general duties require adequate training and competence, not a certificate. HSE says there is no legal requirement for a lift-truck training certificate or for an asbestos training certificate, though it encourages certificates as evidence that training was given. First aid is different: HSE guidance is that a first-aider must hold a valid certificate.
Where this comes from
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 13 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 10 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 21 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, regulation 20 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, regulation 3 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, regulation 4 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 9 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 5 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, regulation 10 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, regulation 12 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, regulation 9 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, regulation 10 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, regulation 6 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulation 13 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulation 15 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 18 (legislation.gov.uk)
- HSE: Decide what training and information you need
- HSE: First aid, what employers need to do
- HSE: Asbestos information, instruction and training
- HSE: Lift-truck training
- HSE: Manual handling at work, reduce the risk of injury
- HSE: Noise at work, employers' responsibilities
- HSE: Working safely with display screen equipment
- HSE: Common work at height myths
- HSE: First aid, are you a first-aider?
This guide is general information for small employers in Great Britain, checked against the sources above on the date shown. It is not legal advice. If something serious depends on it, check the source or ask a competent adviser.