Skip Hire Health and Safety Templates & Guidance

The easiest way to create a risk assessment for your skip hire business is to start with a pre-filled, industry-specific template.

A proper risk assessment identifies what could cause harm, who might be affected, and what controls are needed to prevent accidents or ill health. In a skip hire business, this includes assessing risks from yard vehicle movements, skip delivery and collection, skip lifting, overloaded skips, plant operations, fire risks linked to waste, hazardous items in skips, manual handling, slips and trips, dust, and waste transfer activities. Each hazard should be reviewed for how likely it is to cause harm and how serious the outcome could be, then recorded along with the actions you will take to control it.

To start from scratch, you would need to walk through your yard and working areas, consult with staff, and record all hazards systematically, which can be time-consuming and difficult to get right. Our Skip Hire Risk Assessment Template removes the guesswork by including realistic, pre-written hazards and control measures relevant to skip hire businesses, skip yards, and waste transfer operations, that can be easily taliored to suit your business.

For an all-in-one compliance solution, the Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Bundle includes the risk assessment plus essential supporting documents such as a Health and Safety Policy, COSHH Risk Assessments, Fire Risk Assessment templates, and an Accident Report Form.

Yes — all skip hire businesses are legally required to carry out a risk assessment to identify and control workplace hazards.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer must assess risks to employees, customers, contractors, and anyone else who may be affected by the business. If your skip hire business employs five or more people, you must record the significant findings in writing. Even smaller owner-operated businesses are strongly advised to complete one as a best practice measure, as it helps demonstrate compliance during inspections and shows that legal duties have been taken seriously. A written risk assessment also helps prevent costly accidents, enforcement action, and reputational damage.

A thorough risk assessment for a skip hire business should cover hazards such as yard traffic movements, skip delivery and collection, lifting operations, overloaded skips, fire risks, hazardous waste, manual handling, plant and pedestrian segregation, and slips or trips. Our Skip Hire Risk Assessment Template is pre-filled with industry-specific hazards and practical control measures, helping you stay compliant quickly and confidently.

For a complete solution, our Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Bundle includes the risk assessment, Health and Safety Policy, COSHH Risk Assessments, Fire Risk Assessment documents, and other key templates to help you manage safety in one place.

A skip hire risk assessment should cover the full workflow of the business, from yard operations and skip lifting to delivery, collection, and waste transfer activities.

In practice, that usually means looking at workplace transport, reversing, lifting equipment, safe working loads, pedestrian segregation, fire risks from waste, hazardous substances, manual handling, slips and trips, lone working, young or inexperienced workers, pregnant workers, and site-specific hazards at customer premises. It should also consider how non-employees could be affected, including customers, contractors, and members of the public. HSE guidance for workplace transport and the waste sector places strong emphasis on segregation, safe zones, and controlling interaction between vehicles, plant, and people.

Our Skip Hire Risk Assessment Template is built around these real operational risks, and our Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Bundle helps you support that assessment with policies, forms, fire safety documents, and staff guidance.

Every business should have a health and safety policy, and if you employ five or more people it must be written down.

A good policy sets out your overall approach to health and safety, who is responsible for what, and how safety is managed day to day. For a skip hire business, that often means clear responsibility for yard traffic management, deliveries and collections, lifting operations, waste handling, training, inspections, and emergency arrangements. Even if you have fewer than five employees, a written policy is still useful because it helps show a clear structure and can support consistency across the business.

Our single page Health and Safety Policy Template is ready to edit, and pre-filled examples are included making it simple to tailor to your skip hire business and stay compliant without the stress.

Yes. If you are responsible for non-domestic premises such as a skip yard, office, workshop, or waste transfer area, you need a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.

In skip hire and waste transfer operations, fire risk is especially important because waste can contain batteries, aerosols, gases under pressure, flammable substances, and other hidden ignition sources. A fire risk assessment should consider ignition sources, combustible materials, emergency routes, detection and warning arrangements, staff training, and the measures needed to reduce the likelihood and consequences of fire. If dangerous substances are present, DSEAR may also apply alongside general fire duties.

Our simple and user-friendly Fire Risk Assessment Template guides you through the process of conducting your fire risk assessment, and the Essential Fire Safety Template Bundle helps you document these arrangements properly with additional supporting documents, keeping both staff and customers safe.

Yes, if your business uses or generates substances hazardous to health, you need to assess the risks and put COSHH controls in place.

In a skip hire or waste transfer business, COSHH can apply to fuels, oils, greases, cleaning chemicals, aerosols, dusty waste, fumes, and contaminated materials handled during yard operations. A COSHH assessment should identify the substance, how exposure could happen, who could be harmed, and what controls are needed, such as safer alternatives, ventilation, PPE, training, and hygiene arrangements. Employers also need to provide workers with information, instruction and training on the hazards and controls.

Our ready-to-use COSHH Risk Assessments are tailored for commonly used chemicals and hazardous substances, helping you meet your legal duties while protecting staff health.

There is also a Blank COSHH Risk Assessment Template available for hazardous substances specific to your business that we have not yet covered.

Skip hire businesses should record workplace accidents internally, this can be done using an accident report form, and must report certain serious work-related incidents under RIDDOR.

An internal accident record helps you track injuries, near misses and patterns that may need corrective action. Separately, RIDDOR requires specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, some occupational diseases, and work-related deaths, to be reported to the HSE. Not every accident is reportable, but all serious incidents should be reviewed carefully to decide whether a report is required. In a skip hire setting, that might include major lifting incidents, serious vehicle accidents in the yard, dangerous machinery failures, or injuries caused by falling loads.

Our Accident Report Form Template gives you a clear, consistent way to record workplace injuries, incidents, and near misses, helping you keep accurate records, spot recurring issues, and support any internal investigation or follow-up actions. It is a practical document for skip hire businesses that need to document incidents properly and demonstrate that health and safety concerns are being taken seriously.

Yes. Lifting equipment and lifting accessories used in skip hire must be suitable, properly maintained, and subject to thorough examination at the required intervals.

LOLER requires lifting equipment to be fit for purpose, appropriately marked and, in many cases, thoroughly examined by a competent person. As a minimum, lifting equipment should usually be thoroughly examined every 12 months, while lifting accessories and equipment used to lift people are generally examined every 6 months, unless a competent person specifies a different interval in a written scheme. Records must be kept, and defects found during examination may need to be reported. For skip hire businesses, this makes lifting gear, chains, hooks, lifting points and vehicle-mounted lifting equipment a major compliance area.

View our Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Collection here.

Yes. You should assess additional risks for young people, and you must carry out an individual assessment when a worker tells you in writing that they are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have given birth in the last 6 months.

Young or inexperienced workers may be at greater risk because they can be less aware of traffic routes, exclusion zones, hidden waste hazards, and the dangers of plant and lifting operations. Pregnant workers and new mothers may need adjustments around manual handling, fatigue, slips and trips, exposure to hazardous substances, and other operational risks. These are not box-ticking exercises. They are about identifying what is different for that person and changing duties, controls or supervision where needed.

Our Young Workers Risk Assessment and Pregnant Employees and New Mothers Risk Assessment help you document this clearly, and the Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Bundle includes these supporting assessments alongside the main skip hire risk assessment.

A skip hire business must have adequate and appropriate first aid equipment, facilities and personnel based on its risks and working arrangements.

What is adequate depends on the nature of the work, the hazards involved and where people are working. Because skip hire often involves vehicles, plant, lifting equipment, manual handling, sharp materials and outdoor work, the first aid needs are usually greater than in a low-risk office environment. You need to assess what cover is required, provide a suitably stocked first aid kit, appoint the right people, and tell employees what the arrangements are. If staff work away from the yard, such as Drivers on collections and deliveries, your assessment should also consider mobile first aid arrangements and emergency response.

View our Skip Hire Health and Safety Template Collection here.