Without seeing the contents of the BS it is difficult to understand how it might differ from HSE guidance, if at all. British Standards are not legally enforceable, whereas as legislation is, therefore the BS guidance will be sub-ordinate to the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations and ACoP, low risk business or not.

Cannot add to details provided above except to say have a look at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg214.pdf Q4. if you want to here it from the horses mouth so to speak, lots of other good advice on first aid at work avaliable on the HSE web site as well. HTH smitch

My understanding is that the new BS covering first aid kit contents differs from the HSE guidance in that it more closely aligns with current training (principally more on infection control, eg CPR face-shields, gloves). The HSE contents list has not changed in a long time. I believe BS kits are likely to be a bit more expensive than HSE-list kits. There is no requirement to replace existing kits, but because the content of the new BSI Standard kits is supposedly more practical and better fits the needs of modern first aid treatment, if you buy a new kit it might be better to buy a BS one rather than an HSE one. Neither BS nor HSE kits are statutory or mandatory though, so you can do a risk assessment (!) and define your own contents.

Interesting comments on this post. I have taken an interst in this one as someone working for my company as a safety advisor has ordered everyone to change their kits immeditaly in order to comply with these standards. MY question was, why are we changing these kits straight away, as there is not legal requirement for these, and phsing them in would be a better strategy. Thoughts please? bit more info - We are both competent safety advisors, with different opinions.

Perhaps yet another occasion when the spurious articles will start to appear in the trade press and elsewhere suggesting to the unwary that what you've currently got will now no longer do? I seem to recall a similar rash of articles not so long ago telling us we had to replace all our H&S Law posters immediately. Has your colleague perhaps been hoodwinked by a misleading article somewhere jarsmith83?

Yes, I am wondering if this is another of those occasions when the marketing department goes into overdrive in a bid to increase sales? Fire extinguishers and BS EN 3 (I think) are ringing a bell somewhere in the dim and distant past! Can any elaborate what if any significant changes or implications there are attached to this? I suspect few if any!

Thank you Martin, that's that one cleared up then :-)