Posted By Ian G Hutchings Hi John My understanding is that an employer should have a written policy if they employ five or more people. a) are they an employer? b) do they have more than four staff? You can still ask for them to have one as part of your supply chain management process, even if it is not a legal requirement.

Posted By Pete Longworth In my last job we used to deal with a lot of sole traders and "one man band" outfits. Not many of these people had a health and safety policy as such. What we used to do was provide them with a copy of our health and safety policy, risk assessments etc and ask them to sign an undertaking that they had read them, understood them and would work to their requirements. Many of these "one man bands" were ex-employees anyway so we found that it worked very well.