The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (1981) require you to provide adequate and appropriate first-aid equipment, facilities and people so your employees can be given immediate help if they are injured or taken ill at work. It is important to remember that accidents and illness can happen at any time, so first aid provision must be available to people at work at all times.
The aim of first aid is to reduce the effects of injury or illness suffered at work, whether caused by the work itself or not. First-aid provision must be ‘adequate and appropriate in the circumstances’. This means that sufficient first-aid equipment, facilities and personnel should be available at all times, taking account of alternative working patterns, to: