A new starter turns up on a Monday morning and the stores cupboard gets raided. The boots are half a size small because that was what happened to be in stock. The hi-vis is a 3XL from a job lot bought two winters ago. Nobody is sure whether the last person handed their gloves back.
None of that is unusual. It is also avoidable with about twenty minutes of planning before the start date. This is what we see work when customers get a new intake through the door.
Start with the assessment, not the catalogue
Regulation 6 of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 puts the assessment before the choice. You identify the risks left over once the other controls are in place, then pick kit for those risks. Done the other way round, you end up with a stores cupboard full of things nobody needed and a gap where the actual hazard was.
PPE is the last line, not the first. Regulation 4 requires suitable PPE only where the risk has not been adequately controlled by other means that are equally or more effective. If the answer to a hazard is a pair of glasses, fine, as long as it was a considered answer.
Two details get missed constantly. PPE has to be free, and you cannot charge a worker for kit they need to do the job. Since April 2022 that covers limb (b) workers as well as employees, so the agency lad on the same site gets the same kit on the same terms. Regulation 4(4) adds that where hygiene requires it, an item is issued for that person's use only. Boots, gloves, earplugs. None of it gets passed around.
What actually goes in the pack
This is a general site and workshop pack at our current list prices. A food factory or a cleanroom needs a different list, but the shape is the same.
- Hi-vis vest in standard yellow, £2.99. Class 2 is the usual working minimum.
- Hi-vis polo, short sleeve, £11.50. There is a budget version at £8.20 if the numbers are tight.
- Action trousers at £20.90, or ES1 essentials at £16.50.
- S1P safety boots, £24.20. Steel toe and steel midsole, which is the sensible floor for most sites.
- Safety helmet, £8.55.
- Clear safety spectacles, £1.62.
- Ear defenders, £5.65, or plugs if the noise is intermittent rather than constant.
- Latex grip gloves, £1.74.
That comes to £77.15 a head. Two additions are worth considering. A bomber jacket at £22.95, because anyone starting in Scotland in late October will want one within a fortnight, and knee pads at £7.10 if the job involves kneeling. With both, the pack is £107.20.
What we would not do is buy a job lot of one size to save a few pence. It always ends with a return and a starter working in the wrong kit for a week.
Sizing is where inductions go wrong
Regulation 4(3)(c) is blunt. The equipment must be capable of fitting the wearer correctly. Order one size of boot and you are hoping. Order two and you send one pair back, which is cheaper than a starter in boots that rub.
Ask before the start date, not on it. Boot size, chest, waist, inside leg, glove size, and whether they want a female fit trouser or a unisex cut. There is a real difference in the pattern, and people rarely complain, they just wear something uncomfortable for a year and leave.
Gloves are the worst offender. A size 9 pulled over a size 8 hand bunches at the fingers, the grip goes, and the wearer takes them off for the fiddly part of the job. That is a hand injury waiting to happen. Get the size right or accept that the glove is decoration.
Get the branding done before they walk in
Most customers want a logo on the polo and the jacket. Embroidery takes time. Artwork has to be set up, a sample approved, and the run fitted into the queue. Usually a few days, sometimes a couple of weeks, reliably longer in November.
If the starter begins on the Monday and the embroidery order goes in on the Monday, they are in plain kit for a fortnight. Do what most of our customers do: issue plain on day one, swap when the branded kit lands. Nobody objects to a plain polo for two weeks. Put a name in the collar with a marker before the kit leaves the building.
The piece of paper that saves you later
Nothing in the 1992 regulations says "keep a PPE register", so nobody should pretend it does. What they do say is that PPE must be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair (regulation 7), and that workers get adequate information, instruction and training (regulation 9). Both need evidence when an inspector, an insurer or a solicitor asks, and memory is not evidence.
An issue sheet with five columns covers it. Date. Item, size and the standard marked on the label. Signature of the person receiving it. Date it was last checked. Signature of whoever checked it.
Photograph the label when the kit is new. Hi-vis fades, boots wear through at the toe and reflective tape lifts at the edges, and "it was fine when we gave it to him" is a weak answer eighteen months later. We covered the replacement side of that in our guide to how long safety boots last.
Fifteen minutes on day one
Regulation 9 asks for enough information, instruction and training for the worker to know the risks the kit protects against, why they are wearing it, and how to use it. In practice that is a short conversation, not a course.
- Show them how the helmet adjusts and where the chin strap sits.
- Tell them what a failed boot or a dead glove looks like, and where to bring it.
- Make clear that they report damage rather than swap kit with a mate.
- Show them where kit is stored at the end of a shift.
Ten minutes, done properly, and the kit gets looked after. Skip it and you will replace more of it, sooner.
What it adds up to
Six starters in the full pack is £643.20, or £462.90 for basics only. Against a single lost-time hand injury, or a week of a supervisor's time chasing boots, it is not a number worth arguing about. It is also a figure for the budget rather than a surprise on the stores account in February.
We put these packs together for customers most weeks, priced for the site rather than off a generic list. If you want a starter kit costed for your own intake, ring us on +44(0)1236 755544, or look through the hi-vis range and the safety footwear range on the shop.
REF: NEW-STARTER-WORKWEAR
