Heads of School

Duties for the Head of School in relation to biological activities.

Each Head of School must take appropriate measures to ensure that all relevant persons are made aware of any hazards associated with the biological materials encountered during the course of their work and of the requirements to adopt working procedures designed to keep the risks to their health, and to the health of other persons who might be affected thereby, as low as reasonably achievable.

Decisions on how best to work safely with biohazards stem from risk assessments. It is illegal to carry out a work activity involving biohazardous materials without first making such an assessment, which in almost all cases will require to be recorded in writing, and made available for inspection by interested parties such as Health and Safety Executive Inspectors, the University's insurers or members of the Health and Safety Department.

In addition, each Head of School must ensure the University Health and Safety Policy on safety in biological laboratories is supplemented by local School rules relating to specific activities of the School, so that, when read in conjunction with this Part of the Policy, the documents form an effective means of securing the safe use of biological materials, as well as potentially hazardous equipment and hazardous processes.

List of duties

Extract from Part 6 of the University Health and Safety Policy.