Business must meet their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Businesses must continue to meet their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 during the COVID-19 Protection Framework. This means businesses must eliminate work, health and safety risks, and if they cannot eliminate them, minimise as much risk as reasonably practical.

For an employee who has identified themselves as being at high risk by public health guidance if they carry out their work, the business needs to eliminate the risk for the employee where they can, for example by having the employee work from home, or in a way that does not bring them into contact with others.

The business should discuss the controls they put in place with their affected employees and Health and Safety representatives. If the business does nothing to eliminate or minimise the risk to these employees, they may be found in breach of their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

A business cannot be paid the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme for people who choose not to go to work because they are concerned adequate steps have not been taken to protect them from the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19.

However, the employee may be eligible for this assistance if they are in one of the affected groups (ie they are considered 'higher risk' of severe illness if they get COVID-19, or their household members are considered 'higher risk', and are advised to self-isolate for at least 4 consecutive days by a medical practitioner).