Who is responsible for providing PPE?

In addition to purchasing, monitoring and maintaining PPE, employers need to ensure that their employees have sufficient training on how to use their PPE properly – otherwise, the risk of dangerous accidents could increase. Regular training will also ensure that all workers fully understand the importance of PPE compliance and how to look after this vital equipment, which would hopefully reduce the amount of money that the employer must spend on repairs and maintenance.

These regulations were expanded in 2022. The general guidance remains the same, but PPER has been expanded to include a wider group of workers. This means that employers who previously weren’t responsible for providing PPE may now have to, according to UK law.

PPER 1992 only applied to limb (a) workers, who are workers with a contract of employment (e.g., full-time employees of one company). To expand the law, PPER 2022 also applies to limb (b) workers, who are workers that have a more casual employment relationship. As a general rule, limb (b) workers:

• Have casual or irregular working arrangements
• May work for multiple employers
• Have a limited right to send someone else to do their work
• Only carry out work if they choose to
• Receive holiday pay but not other employment rights after one month of continuous service

For example, limb (b) workers can include temporary workers, agency workers and ‘gig workers’, such as drivers for companies like Deliveroo and Uber. According to PPER 2022, employers of these workers must now provide them with free PPE if a workplace risk assessment deems that this is necessary. 

Since self-employed people don’t have employers, they are responsible for purchasing and maintaining their own PPE if needed. They are also responsible for ensuring that their PPE meets the standards required for the workplace they’re entering, which means that clients can ask them to wear more advanced PPE if their site carries an elevated level of risk.

One exception to this rule is if a self-employed person is working for a single client full-time, as they would then be classed as an employee and entitled to PPE provided free of charge by their employer (if this is necessary for their workplace).

As we’ve established, all of the legal responsibility for workplace PPE compliance is placed on the employer. However, it’s very important that employers and employees work together to ensure that proper PPE is provided and worn correctly, as the consequences of PPE non-compliance can be devastating.

Employees have the right to speak up if they feel like they should be provided with PPE in their workplace, or if they do have PPE but it’s ill-fitting, badly maintained or otherwise not fit for purpose. Employees should fully engage in workplace PPE training (which must be provided by the employer) so that they know how to wear their PPE properly, look after it, and identify faults. If an employee identifies problems with their PPE, they should immediately notify their employer, who is then responsible for correcting this issue as soon as possible. In the meantime, while the PPE is not fit for purpose, the employer should find alternative tasks for the employee so that they aren’t exposed to workplace hazards.

Unfortunately, even if comprehensive PPE training is provided and any PPE maintenance issues are promptly addressed, some employees may still not wear their PPE correctly, or they may refuse to wear it entirely. Unless the worker has legitimate reasons to not wear their PPE (e.g., they refuse to wear a hard hat because of their religious headgear), the employer must make sure that the employee wears the correct PPE when on-site. If workplace accidents occur because of PPE non-compliance, the employer would ultimately be legally responsible for not enforcing PPE compliance adequately.

For this reason, it’s in the employer’s best interest to work closely with their employees to provide thorough training and quickly address any issues related to PPE maintenance, repairs or re-sizing – even if the employee requests a non-standard size. All of this is the employer’s responsibility, so to protect themselves legally, companies will typically outline their expectations for PPE compliance in employment contracts – allowing them to dismiss employees that refuse to wear their PPE. 

Your employer cannot charge you for any PPE that you must wear at work. However, things get a bit more complicated when you consider other forms of workwear – particularly if this involves clothing that you could technically wear outside of work.

If you’re required to wear a specialist uniform at work that doesn’t fall under the PPE category, your employer isn’t legally required to pay for it – only PPE must be provided for free. However, you may be entitled to a workwear tax rebate instead. 

This rebate only applies to the maintenance, cleaning and replacement of uniforms that are required for your job and can only be worn while at work. For example, healthcare tunics and trousers, police officer uniforms, and other types of emergency response attire are easily recognisable work uniforms that are required on the job and can’t be worn as everyday clothing, which means you’ll be entitled to claim workwear tax relief if you wear these garments.

However, you aren’t entitled to the workwear tax rebate if you need to wear smart business suits or clothing in a certain colour for your job, since these items could be worn outside of work too.