Safety statements and risk assessments for Irish pubs, restaurants and cafés

The safety statement is one of those documents every Irish pub and restaurant is supposed to have and many keep in a folder nobody has opened since the day it was printed. HSA inspectors see plenty of generic ones written by someone who never set foot in the kitchen. The law asks for something more useful: a document built from your own risk assessments that your staff have actually been shown.

This guide covers what the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 requires, how to write both documents for a hospitality venue, and how to keep them alive. It reflects the law and HSA guidance as of October 2026.

What the law requires

Two sections of the 2005 Act do the work.

Section 19: written risk assessments

Every employer must identify the hazards in the workplace, assess the risks they present, and be in possession of a written risk assessment. It must cover risks to employees, including any individual or group exposed to unusual risks. The employer must review it where there's been a significant change or another reason to think it's no longer valid, and must put in place the improvements it shows are needed.

The HSA's guidance is direct: yes, risk assessments must be written down or typed, on paper or digital, and your employees must be able to access them easily.

Section 20: the safety statement

Every employer must prepare a written safety statement, based on the hazards identified and the risk assessment, setting out how safety, health and welfare will be secured and managed. Section 20(2) says it must specify:

• the hazards identified and the risks assessed
• the protective and preventive measures taken and the resources provided
• the plans and procedures for an emergency or serious and imminent danger
• the duties of employees on safety, health and welfare, including co-operating with the employer
• the names and job titles of the people responsible for tasks assigned under it
• the arrangements for safety representatives and consulting staff

The HSA puts the contents more simply: your health and safety policy, your risk assessments, the controls you need, and the names of those responsible for putting them in place.

Who needs one

The HSA says all employers, including the self-employed, must have a safety statement relating to their workplace. Section 20(8) allows an employer with 3 or fewer employees to comply by following a code of practice on safety statements for their class of work, where one exists. Section 19 risk assessments apply whatever your size.

Bringing it to your staff's attention

Section 20(3) says the safety statement must be brought to the attention of:

• employees, at least annually, and after any amendment
• new employees when they start
• other people at the workplace who may be exposed to a specific risk it covers, such as contractors

It must be in a form, manner and language that's reasonably likely to be understood. In a kitchen with staff whose first language isn't English, that may mean a translated summary or a walk-through rather than handing over a document.

A copy of the safety statement, or the relevant extract, must be kept available for inspection at or near the workplace while work is going on there. For a group, that's one at each venue.

How to do a risk assessment, step by step

The HSA breaks it into three steps.

1. Look for the hazards. Walk the venue and ask "where can people get hurt?" Think about staff and non-staff: customers, suppliers, delivery drivers, contractors. You don't need to list trivial everyday risks. The HSA's own example: a 1kg package isn't a hazard, a 25kg box of them is.

2. Decide who might be harmed and how. Consider how likely harm is and how serious it could be. Think about people at greater risk: young workers, people new to the job, migrant workers, people with disabilities, older workers, pregnant employees and shift workers. Hospitality has all of them.

3. Talk to staff and put controls in place. Discuss the plan with the people who do the work; they'll spot things you won't. Record the extra controls in an action plan with who will do it, by when, and the date it was done.

Hazards to cover in a pub, restaurant or café

The HSA's Safe Hospitality guidance for hotels, restaurants, catering and bars covers these, and most venues will need a risk assessment for each:

Writing the safety statement

Once your risk assessments are done, the safety statement pulls them together:

1. Policy statement: a short commitment from the owner, signed and dated.
2. Responsibilities: names and roles, such as who checks the fire exits, who manages first aid, who looks after the cellar.
3. Risk assessments: attached or referenced, with their action plans.
4. Emergency procedures: fire, evacuation, gas leak, serious injury, assembly point.
5. Employee duties: following procedures, reporting hazards and accidents, using PPE.
6. Consultation: how staff raise concerns and the name of any safety representative.
7. Accident and incident reporting: how incidents are logged and which ones go to the HSA. See accident reporting to the HSA.

Use BeSMART.ie

The HSA's BeSMART.ie is a free online tool for small businesses to generate their own risk assessments and safety statement. It covers hundreds of business types, including hospitality. The process has four steps: register and choose your business type, answer questions about the hazards in your workplace, consult your employees to check nothing has been missed, then manage and print your safety statement and risk assessments.

For most independent pubs, restaurants and cafés, BeSMART.ie is the sensible starting point. What it can't do is know your building. Edit the output to match your actual cellar, kitchen and layout.

Reviewing it

The HSA says review the safety statement yearly, or more often when:

• your activities change and staff face new hazards, such as new equipment or a new way of working
• there's reason to think it's no longer adequate, such as a change in arrangements or a near miss

Risk assessments should be reviewed at least annually too, and after changes in activities, equipment, chemicals or structure, changes in law, or an incident. Under section 20(5), an HSA inspector can also direct that the safety statement be amended within 30 days.

Good triggers to put in the diary for a hospitality business: a new menu with new equipment, opening a beer garden or function room, a refit, seasonal staff starting, and any accident or near miss in your log.

Staff sign-off

The Act requires you to bring the statement to staff's attention; it doesn't require a signature. But a signature sheet is the simplest proof:

Use it at induction and at the annual review. Our staff induction checklist includes the safety statement walk-through.

Common mistakes

• A generic, bought-in statement that doesn't mention your premises.
• No action plan, so controls identified never happen.
• Never shown to staff, or shown in a language they don't read.
• Not updated after a refit, a new fryer or an accident.
• Kept off site at the accountant's or in the owner's car.

How ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete lets you create, keep and print risk assessments in the app, so they're on hand at each venue and easy to update after an incident. Incidents and maintenance issues are logged with photos, severity and status. Daily checklists turn controls into routine, such as cellar hatch checks, fire exit checks and cleaning, with every tick named and timestamped. Team announcements tell everyone when something has changed.

It helps you keep the records an HSA inspector or an EHO may ask to see; you remain responsible for your safety statement. It's €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days with no card and no contract.