GG-7-16 General Safety Guidance
File Reference : GG-7-16 General Safety Guidance
Date File Updated 07-10-26
Category General Guidance
Tags: ISO 45001, 8.1

Included in the alphaZ subscription

Every alphaZ document and toolkit, with updates as they are released. Everything you download is yours to keep.

alphaZ subscription Subscriber access

You are logged in as an alphaZ subscriber

This document's file is ready to download from the Download Files tab below.

The everyday safety rules set out as short plain points, covering equipment, signs, tidy work areas, protective equipment, accidents and health.

Effective Guidance Documents

This guidance document is supplied in fully editable MS Word format and can be easily customised and edited. The document uses pre-defined style formatting throughout, with all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The following document labelling is included in the footer:

  • Guidance number and title
  • Information-classification
  • Version
  • Page number / total pages
alphaZ documents - beautifully designed, tried and tested guidance documents. No junk, jargon or unnecessary content. Simple and usable guidance documents developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.
How to Download

These files are included in the alphaZ subscription. The training talk is also included in the ISO 45001 Toolkit and the integrated toolkits that include it.

Implementation Support
Need Help Implementing?

If you'd like hands-on help setting out your everyday health and safety rules and arrangements, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.

File Formats

General Safety Guidance

A general guidance document on everyday health and safety at work, for all employees. It explains the legal duty everyone has to take reasonable care, and covers the rules that must be followed at all times on working practices, safety signs, the working environment, protective equipment, accidents and health.

Topics Covered

  • Working practices - using equipment only when trained and authorised, never removing guards, reporting defects and avoiding shortcuts and horseplay
  • Safety signs and notices - following all the safety and warning signs and notices displayed on the premises
  • Working conditions and environment - keeping work areas tidy, using the waste areas and bins provided, reporting spills and never blocking fire escape routes or fire doors
  • Protective clothing and equipment - wearing protective equipment where it is required, and only wearing equipment that has been issued to you
  • Accidents and damage - seeing a first aider for any injury, however minor, recording it in the accident book and reporting property damage
  • Health and no smoking - reporting any medical condition that could affect your safety or the safety of others, and following the no-smoking rules

Who Is It For?

All employees, whatever their role, as the rules apply to everyone at all times.

Included in the ISO 45001 Toolkit

This guidance is supplied with the TT-7-16 General Safety Guidance training talk, which is part of the ISO 45001 Toolkit and the integrated toolkits that include it.

Using the Guidance

Give it to every new starter at induction, go through it with the matching training talk, and keep it to hand as a reminder of the house rules. Record who has received it, for example on the training matrix.

Short Rules Staff Can Follow

Each section is a short list of plain instructions rather than background reading, such as never removing guarding from equipment, never trying to repair a defect yourself and only wearing protective equipment issued to you. That makes the guidance quick to brief and easy for staff to check against what they do every day.

Adapting the Guidance

Edit the guidance to match your own arrangements - your first aid and accident book arrangements, the areas and bins for waste and scrap, and your no-smoking rules.

Related Documents

Other documents that work alongside this guidance:

Would you rather we prepared it for you?

A day of remote support can take the risk assessments you already have, move them into one consistent format with the same scoring throughout, and build your hazard register from them, so the hazards this guidance covers are backed by a current assessment.

Risk Assessment Reformatting and Hazard Register

These files are for alphaZ subscribers. Log in to the subscriber library once and each file below downloads straight away. Not a subscriber yet? See the alphaZ subscription.

Each file downloads straight away. You can also browse the subscriber library.