Safety Statements
CMIOSH Qualified Consultants - Section 20 SHWW Act 2005 - Risk Assessment Based - Nationwide
Request a Safety Statement
Our CMIOSH qualified consultants prepare comprehensive, risk assessment-based safety statements that comply with Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Bespoke documentation tailored to your operations.
Expert Safety Statement Preparation for Irish Businesses
Phoenix STS provides expert safety statement preparation services for businesses across Ireland. Our CMIOSH qualified consultants develop comprehensive, compliant documentation based on thorough risk assessments as required under Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. A safety statement is your organisation's blueprint for workplace safety management, outlining hazards, risks, control measures, and responsibilities. We prepare bespoke documentation that reflects your actual operations, not generic templates.
Why Your Business Needs a Safety Statement
Understanding the importance of a comprehensive, compliant safety statement.
Legal Requirement
Section 20 of the SHWW Act 2005 requires every employer to prepare a written safety statement. Non-compliance can result in HSA enforcement action including improvement notices, fines, and prosecution.
Safety Management Framework
Provides the documented framework for managing workplace safety. Identifies hazards, assesses risks, specifies control measures, assigns responsibilities, and establishes procedures.
Employee Protection
Protects employees by ensuring workplace hazards are identified, assessed, and controlled. Clear documentation ensures employees understand their responsibilities and procedures.
Insurance and Due Diligence
Insurers expect evidence of proactive safety management. A safety statement demonstrates due diligence and supports insurance applications and renewals.
HSA Inspection Readiness
HSA inspectors will ask to see your safety statement during any workplace inspection. A comprehensive, up-to-date document demonstrates compliance and professionalism.
Foundation Document
Your safety statement is the foundation of your safety management system, linking risk assessments, policies, procedures, and training requirements into one authoritative document.
What Must Be Included in Your Safety Statement
Section 20 of the SHWW Act 2005 specifies what your safety statement must contain.
Safety Policy Statement
Organisation's written commitment to safety, signed by senior management. Sets out safety objectives, management and employee responsibilities.
Hazard Identification
Comprehensive identification of all workplace hazards by area and activity covering physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial hazards.
Risk Assessment
Evaluation of risks for each identified hazard using likelihood and severity ratings. Identifies who could be harmed and assesses existing controls.
Control Measures
Detailed protective and preventive measures, safe systems of work, PPE requirements, and arrangements for implementing and maintaining controls.
Roles and Responsibilities
Named individuals responsible for safety management, competent person arrangements, and resources allocated for safety.
Emergency Procedures
Plans and procedures for fire, medical emergencies, evacuation, incident reporting, and first aid arrangements.
Initial Consultation and Site Visit
We meet to understand your business operations, review existing documentation, and conduct a comprehensive site visit to examine your workplace, work activities, equipment, and substances.
Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Our consultants conduct thorough risk assessments covering all aspects of your operations. We identify workplace hazards, evaluate risks, and assess existing control measures.
Document Drafting
We prepare your comprehensive safety statement based on risk assessment findings, including safety policy, hazard identification, control measures, responsibilities, and emergency procedures.
Review and Consultation
Draft provided for your review and feedback. We incorporate comments, verify accuracy against your operations, and support employee consultation as required by legislation.
Delivery and Implementation
Final documentation delivered with implementation support. We assist with bringing the document to the attention of employees, arranging training, and establishing monitoring arrangements.
Initial Consultation and Site Visit
We meet to understand your business operations, review existing documentation, and conduct a comprehensive site visit to examine your workplace, work activities, equipment, and substances.
Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Our consultants conduct thorough risk assessments covering all aspects of your operations. We identify workplace hazards, evaluate risks, and assess existing control measures.
Document Drafting
We prepare your comprehensive safety statement based on risk assessment findings, including safety policy, hazard identification, control measures, responsibilities, and emergency procedures.
Review and Consultation
Draft provided for your review and feedback. We incorporate comments, verify accuracy against your operations, and support employee consultation as required by legislation.
Delivery and Implementation
Final documentation delivered with implementation support. We assist with bringing the document to the attention of employees, arranging training, and establishing monitoring arrangements.
Legislative Framework
Irish legislation places clear requirements on employers to prepare and maintain written safety statements. Our service supports compliance with all relevant legislation.
Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 - Section 20
Requires every employer to prepare a written safety statement specifying how the safety, health, and welfare of employees will be secured. The statement must be based on risk assessment, identify the hazards and assess the risks, detail protective and preventive measures, specify resources allocated, and be brought to the attention of employees. View on Irish Statute Book
General Application Regulations 2007
Sets out detailed requirements for specific workplace hazards that must be addressed within the safety statement, including manual handling, display screen equipment, personal protective equipment, work at height, and emergency procedures. View on Irish Statute Book
Benefits
For Your Employees
- Clear understanding of workplace hazards and safety procedures
- Documented roles and responsibilities for all staff
- Emergency procedures they can understand and follow
- Training requirements identified and documented
- Right to consultation on safety matters
- Confidence that their workplace is being actively managed for safety
For Your Organisation
- Full compliance with Section 20 of the SHWW Act 2005
- Foundation document for your safety management system
- Evidence of due diligence for insurers and auditors
- HSA inspection readiness with comprehensive documentation
- Clear framework for managing safety across all operations
- Reduced risk of enforcement action and prosecution
Our Consultants
Our safety statement consultants are Chartered Members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (CMIOSH), with extensive experience preparing safety statements for businesses of all sizes across every sector in Ireland.
Every safety statement is based on thorough workplace risk assessment, not generic templates. We prepare clear, practical documentation that reflects your actual operations and meets all legislative requirements. All work is covered by comprehensive professional indemnity insurance.
Nationwide Safety Statement Services
Phoenix STS provides safety statement preparation services throughout Ireland. Based in Longford with nationwide coverage, our CMIOSH qualified consultants work with businesses of all sizes across offices, manufacturing, hospitality, retail, construction, healthcare, and public sector organisations in all 26 counties.
Safety statements that are specific to the workplace
A safety statement should describe how the employer will secure and manage safety, health and welfare at work. It should not be a generic document with the company name changed on the front page. The HSA states that a safety statement must be based on the hazards identified and the risk assessments carried out under Section 19, and that a generic statement would not meet the duties under Sections 19 and 20. Phoenix STS prepares safety statements around that principle: site-specific, risk-assessment based and written for the people who will use them.
The document normally includes the health and safety policy, management responsibilities, consultation arrangements, risk assessment summary, emergency arrangements, accident and incident reporting, training requirements, contractor controls, welfare arrangements, monitoring and review. It should also identify who has responsibility for different tasks. A statement that says ?management will ensure safety? is weak. A better statement names the roles, describes the arrangements and explains how staff will be told about the risks and controls relevant to their work.
What makes a safety statement defensible
A defensible safety statement is one that reflects the business on the day it is issued. It should match the premises, the work activities, the staffing pattern, the equipment, the contractors, the vulnerable persons who may be affected and the actual emergency arrangements. For a multi-site employer, that may mean one core document with site-specific appendices. For a small employer, it may be a shorter document, but it still needs to be based on real hazards and current controls.
We cross-check the statement against the risk assessment findings, existing policies, training records and consultation arrangements. If the risk assessment identifies manual handling or lone working as significant issues, those controls should be visible in the statement and supported by practical procedures. If employees work alone, visit clients, handle chemicals, use vehicles, lift loads or work outside normal hours, the statement must not read like a generic office template. It has to explain how those risks are managed.
Communication and review
A safety statement is only useful if staff know the parts that affect them. The HSA summary of the 2005 Act refers to bringing the statement to employees at least annually, when there are changes and when new employees start. Phoenix STS structures safety statements so that managers can brief the relevant sections without handing staff a long document and expecting them to find what matters. We can also prepare briefing records, action trackers or short summaries where that helps implementation.
The finished statement is supplied with clear recommendations for review. Triggers include changes to work activities, premises, equipment, staffing, legislation, accident history or enforcement feedback. Where a client needs wider support, the safety statement can be linked to risk assessments, policy development, training records and contractor management so that the safety management system works as one set of arrangements rather than separate documents.
Common safety statement problems
The most common weaknesses are easy to recognise: documents that are too generic, risk assessments that do not match the work, policies copied from another sector, named responsible persons who have left the business, and emergency arrangements that no longer reflect the premises. Another frequent issue is communication. Staff may have signed a form to say they received the statement, but they may not have been briefed on the hazards, controls and emergency arrangements relevant to their work.
Phoenix STS checks for these issues before drafting or updating the statement. We look at the employer?s structure, the work activities, the locations, contractor involvement, staff capability and existing records. We then prepare a document that can be maintained. If a manager cannot explain who owns an action or how a control is checked, the statement is unlikely to work in practice.
For established businesses, we can revise an existing statement rather than replacing everything unnecessarily. For new or changing businesses, we can build the statement from the risk assessment stage onwards. Either way, the final document is designed to be specific to the employer, understandable to staff and useful during inspection, insurance review, tendering or internal management review.
Related Services
Explore our full range of health and safety and fire safety services.
H&S Risk Assessments
SHWW Act 2005 compliant workplace risk assessments with detailed reports.
Onsite Training Courses
CPD-accredited on-site health and safety training delivered at your workplace.
Further Reading
Read our complete guide to safety statements in Ireland, covering what the law requires, what your safety statement must contain, penalties for non-compliance, and when to update.
Phoenix STS provides safety statements services across Ireland, including Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and nationwide.
Safety Statement FAQs
Content last reviewed: March 2026.
Yes. Section 20 of the SHWW Act 2005 requires every employer to prepare a written safety statement. The only limited exemption applies to employers with three or fewer employees who may use an industry Code of Practice, but even then written documentation is strongly recommended.
Your safety statement must specify the hazards identified and risks assessed, the protective and preventive measures taken, the resources provided for safety management, the manner of ensuring cooperation between employees, the names and job titles of those responsible, and plans and procedures for emergencies.
You can if you have sufficient competence in health and safety. However, the General Application Regulations 2007 require employers to have access to competent health and safety advice. Many businesses benefit from professional assistance to ensure their documentation is thorough and legally compliant.
Yes. Section 20 requires the safety statement to be brought to the attention of employees. It must be available and accessible to all staff, communicated during induction, referenced in training, and available for employee consultation.
The SHWW Act requires review as often as is appropriate. Best practice is to review at least annually. You must also review after significant workplace changes, following accidents or near misses, when new risks are identified, after HSA inspections, or when legislation changes.
Failure to have a compliant safety statement breaches Section 20 of the SHWW Act 2005. The HSA can issue improvement notices, and serious or repeated failures can result in prohibition notices, prosecution, and substantial fines. Insurers also typically require evidence of safety documentation.
A risk assessment is the systematic process of identifying hazards and evaluating risks. The safety statement is the comprehensive written document that includes risk assessment findings alongside the safety policy, control measures, responsibilities, procedures, and all arrangements for managing workplace safety.
Generic templates rarely meet legislative requirements. Section 20 requires documentation based on risk assessment specific to your workplace. The HSA expects safety statements to reflect your actual operations, hazards, and control measures, not generic boilerplate.
Pricing depends on your business size, complexity, number of work activities, and scope. We provide competitive quotations tailored to your specific needs. Contact us for a no-obligation quote.
Yes. We provide implementation guidance, employee communication support, training arrangements, and ongoing review and update services. We can act as your competent person for ongoing health and safety advice.
Protect Your Business and Comply with Section 20
A professional safety statement is the foundation of effective workplace safety management. Ensure compliance with the SHWW Act 2005 with bespoke, risk assessment-based documentation.