Health & Safety Department

Returning to the University estate

Guidance for staff returning to the University of Edinburgh estate following the Coronavirus outbreak

All legal restrictions were lifted on 18 April 2022.

The Scottish Government’s strategic intent is to manage the virus effectively, primarily through adaptation and health measures – such as vaccination, treatment and surveillance – as we recover and rebuild for a better future.

The University will continue to play its part to protect the community, to prevent and suppress this virus by following the current guidance and by taking all reasonable steps to comply with the relevant health and workplace advice.

Any Covid-19 safety related questions can be sent to the dedicated email address safety.covid19@ed.ac.uk

All areas are now expected to be working in a hybrid fashion or entirely back on campus, depending upon work requirements. The following sections provide additional guidance for Schools and Departments during this current transition period.

First aid advice

Guidance on first aid provision as we return more fully to campus and helpful videos for first aiders, available on the First Aid Training page.

Fire safety advice

The Fire Safety Unit have produced FSU guidance for Schools and Departments as they return to the campus. This replaces the guidance previously issued in 2020 - please remove any references to the old guidance and replace with this new one.

Events on University property

Guidance and a model risk assessment have been produced for small scale events, but which can be used as a basis to scale up for larger events. Please note, this guidance requires to be updated but can still be used as a guide.

Guidance for events

Model risk assessment

Continuing to work from home

Bear in mind that many staff will continue to work from home at times for the foreseeable future. For more information on how to safely set up your home workstation, please see Working from home guidance page.

Reviewing covid-19 control measures

Although all legal covid-19 measures have been removed, we still expect some routine measures to be in place. This guidance note can be used as a checklist or to copy and paste into your own form (as you may choose to integrate these checks into an already existing system). If any deficiencies are identified, these must be rectified as soon as possible.