Hi I work for a funeral business where we have staff going to visit the homes of customers. A staff member tripped when leaving the house of a customer resulting in an injury; what is the legal position here...who is liable and for what......which legislation applies. To complete a risk assessment for each home visit would be impracticable

Occupiers' liability laws I think. However, taking action against your customers could have unintended consequences.

This was an accident connected with work. You have some responsibility. Does your staff visit alone? You then have lone working issues. Have you a health and safety policy? Does it cover visiting customers homes? If not it should and it seems from what you said no consideration has been given to staff who have an accident when visiting clients and what action needs to be taken in such circumstances. Always bear in mind, the employer has the primary Duty of Care.

I would agree Occupiers Liability, I would also argue by visiting the premises they have implied permission to be there, a lawful visitor. It would not be reasonable to carry out risk assessment likewise the householder to give any warning. Might be different if there was a likelihood of a higher danger farm etc.

Lois. You have not said what caused the trip. Shoelaces? An unnoticed but normal step? Or a 'trap' of an unexpected nature - a box, a cable, something similar, by a negligent householder. The employer has a statutory duty to ensure 'sfairp' H&S in connection with work. So if injured on other persons premises, still employer duty, BUT how reasonably practicable to do anything to manage trip hazards in a private house - not very. So enforcement action nil. If however the employer had a degree of control to manage . . if the person tripped on the footpath to the house because it was dark, and they had no torch etc. maybe need to think about that, although enforcement interest still low. Now on to civil liability. The individual can (if there is a loss / injury) claim against the employer, (in theory or against the householder but why would they when the employer is vicariously liable) in that employer was negligent in sending them to a trippy-uppy, dangerous premise, with no torch, etc. Pretty thin. The employer could then claim (back) against the individual house-holder (dealt with under their Occuper Liability insurance hopefully!) if the householder created a silly trip hazard, but not if the trip was just a mis-step (no negligence). Not likely to be worth the effort, but don't know the circumstances. Does this answer your question? There is no gap.

Just to add re risk assessments, although it would not be reasonably practicable to RA each premises centrally, operatives completing the visits could certainly be provided with training in identifying hazards in unfamiliar surroundings. Of the retailers that complete home deliveries I know they operate a point-of-delivery checklist / observation report that operatives are required to complete before undertaking the delivery (acting as a form of site specific RA). This would clearly go some way to raise employee awareness and provide another layer of protection for the company. In addition, although maybe not relevant as I'm assuming repeat visits may not be that common, but retailers gather feedback from completed deliveries and use this to inform operatives of future deliveries (e.g. if there is an issue with lack of lighting, persons to carry torches, likewise if there is a dog that causes issues deliveries can be refused). Maybe not 100% relevant, and I appreciate not touching on your actual question, but it is impossible to undertaken (and to a certain extent document) risk assessments for these situations if one wishes.