Health and safety is an important factor in all work carried out across the Faculty. We have a moral obligation to ensure that everything we do is carried out using the safest means possible. Alongside this, we have a legal obligation and each and every one of us has responsibility with regards to health and safety:

“It is the responsibility of students and employees to take care of their health and safety and of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work”

“No Persons will intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety, or welfare.”

To assist the University in meeting these obligations, there is a central Health and Safety Group that manages health and safety across the University. To support this group and to ensure that correct procedures are followed at a local level, the Faculty has its own staff with health and safety responsibilities.

All staff and students are required to complete the online health and safety course at

Any person wanting to work in a laboratory or workshop area will be required to complete local induction or instruction on procedures to be followed. This will be carried out locally by Faculty staff - please consult your supervisory team for access to the relevant training.

It is your duty in law to work safely and to ensure the safety of others working with you. The same duty applies to the University, and is primarily vested in your main supervisor, who, in this context, is responsible for enabling your programme of study but will not normally be supervising your work in person. What this involves will depend on the nature of your work. You must always comply with local safety policy however inconvenient this seems. There is usually a way of undertaking the work you need to do within the Faculty's safety policy by suitable negotiation with those more experienced in the field, such as your supervisory team, the safety advisers and others with specialist technical knowledge.

You are likely to be asked to undertake a risk assessment of any experiment where there are hazards present which have a significant risk of causing harm to people. This written statement of how to cope with the hazards in an acceptable way must be conducted in accordance with the Faculty's safety policy and procedures.

Risk assessment
Your supervisor(s) and laboratory managers will give specific training in completion of risk assessments and COSSH documentation where necessary for your research. It is your responsibility to abide by the institutional Safety Policies, to observe safe working practices at all times and to follow those procedures prescribed by your supervisor(s).