Responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of employees rests firmly with employer and for work performed in the capacity of an Official Veterinarian that means the employing practice.

What does this mean?

It is important that practices understand responsibilities both under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the AHVLA’s Health and Safety Policy.

You should have a policy that is appropriate to your organisation and undertake your own practice risk assessments for any OV work carried out on behalf of AHVLA. These may result in physical or operational controls that help reduce your working risks to the lowest practicable level. 

These assessments should be clearly communicated to your staff and may involve training that ensure that they understand how to work safely.  They should be available for audit, and checks should also be undertaken by the practice to ensure that best practice is being followed.

Can AHVLA help?

We currently use generic risk assessments to safeguard our staff and reduce risks of working. We will soon make these available to you via this portal and hope that they may help you to benchmark and define your own assessments and advice. However, it must be recognised that AHVLA generic risk assessments are provided on the understanding that Veterinary Practices review them thoroughly for suitability and make necessary revisions based on this review, only then can they be deemed suitable and sufficient for OV work and able to meet the legal obligation of the employer.