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Chapter 3.4 - Health and safety committees

This page forms part of UCL's Safety Management System. This is Chapter 3.4 - Health and safety committees.

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Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC)


The Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC) is constituted in accordance with the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations (1977) as amended by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1992) and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations (1996).

Subject to any general or particular direction that may from time to time be given by the University Management Committee, the Work Health and Safety Committee is charged by UMC:

  • To provide oversight of the management of the workplace health, safety and welfare risk, and to ensure continuous improvement. This includes the review and sustainability of:
    • policy, procedure and guidance.
    • safety training.
    • communication.
    • publicity (including safety campaigns).
  • To set objectives, targets and key performance indicators to improve health and safety management;
  • To approve policy, standards and strategy for the management of health, safety and welfare at work within UCL and compliance with health and safety legislative and other requirements;
  • To provide a forum for consultation and discussion between UCL Management and Union-appointed health and safety representatives on health and safety matters, including any reports they wish to submit;
  • To approve the establishment of specialist sub-committees with competent members in specific risk areas;
  • To receive items of significance from, and the Minutes of, such specialist committees or other groups with responsibility for health and safety-related matters as WHSC may set up and/or which operate under the aegis of the WHSC;
  • To provide oversight of sub-committee actions and to ensure that they are fully integrated in the UCL health and safety management system;
  • To review all the interaction with regulatory authorities relating to health and safety including reports and factual information provided by inspectors of enforcing authorities appointed under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974;
  • To monitor progress against objectives, targets, plans and remedial actions, and determine actions necessary to address areas of non-compliance where there is significant risk;
  • To monitor and review the adequacy and implementation of UCL arrangements, including training and safety and health communication and publicity within UCL;
  • To review safety performance indicators, investigations of significant failures, independent inspection and audit reports and associated remedial actions;
  • To refer matters to the UMC as appropriate, including the submission of regular reports to UMC and Council.

> Membership of the Work Health and Safety Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Work Health and Safety Committee

Standing Advisers are responsible for providing guidance and assistance to members of the Work Health and Safety Committee in the formulation of policy and arrangements for the management of health and safety.  Other Advisers (such as the Fire Safety Manager) are invited to attend meetings on an ad-hoc basis.

Stress and wellbeing is treated like any other health and safety risk and is considered in the wider context of health and safety risk management at the University. This ensures that a wider audience has the opportunity to consider and contribute to matters associated with stress and wellbeing at work, thereby improving the effectiveness of stress risk management. The HSC considers issues relating to the management of stress risk and wellbeing at UCL, including the:

  • Review of UCL’s Policy on Managing Stress at Work and associated procedures to ensure its effectiveness and compliance with the Health and Safety Executive Standards for Managing Stress at Work
  • Review of data (such as those resulting from employment policy monitoring, reports of Employee Assistance Programme take-up, sickness absence data and staff survey results) for indicators of stress risk and to formulate proposals to address areas of concern identified
  • Development of proposals to ensure that staff are provided with appropriate support to build resilience and work effectively at times of pressure

Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-Committee (WOHSS)


The purpose of the Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-Committee is to provide a forum where operational health and safety concerns and issues can be discussed and resolved the Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-committee will in addition to the scope above provide management oversight in the following areas:

  • To report specifically to the WHSC on any matters deemed significant by the committee by the submission of specific papers and through the submission of regular routine reports.
  • Monitoring and Performance: The Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-committee is a proactive management committee, and it will provide oversight of operational health and safety matters through:
    • Review of the key performance indicators.
    • Identification of opportunities for improvement from relevant safety assurance activity.
    • Identification of opportunities for improvement from significant incidents.
    • Considering matters raised by the Trades Unions.
    • Considering matters raised by the by committee members.

> Membership of the Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Work Operational Health and Safety Sub-Committee

Chemical Safety Sub-Committee (CSSC)

The Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC) has established the Chemical Safety Sub-Committee (CSSC) to make recommendations regarding chemical safety. The CSSC will advise the WHSC when a topic is or could be considered a significant hazard. 

> Membership of the Chemical Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Chemical Safety Sub-Committee

Fire Safety Sub-Committee (FSSC)

The Fire Safety Sub-Committee makes recommendations to the Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC) for final consultation and decisions. This will include items relevant to legal requirement, statutory compliance as well as UCL policy and procedures regarding the topics covered by the sub-committee.

> Membership of the Fire Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Fire Safety Sub-Committee

Genetic Modification and Biological Safety Committee (GMBSSC)


The Genetic Modification and Biological Safety Sub-committee (GMBSSC) is a statutory committee, required under regulation 16 of the Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations.  It advises University Management Committee (UMC) through the UCL Work Health & Safety Committee (WHSC), on all matters relating to genetic modification work at UCL, on all work involving wild-type hazard group 2 and 3 organisms at UCL and all work with pathogens and toxins listed under schedule 5 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.

> Membership of the Genetic Modification and Biological Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Genetic Modification and Biological Safety Sub-Committee

Infrastructure Safety Sub-Committee (ISSC)

The Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC) has established the Infrastructure Safety Sub-Committee (ISSC) to make recommendations relevant to legal requirements and statutory compliance as well as UCL policy and procedures. The ISSC will advise the WHSC when a topic is or could be considered a significant hazard. 

> Membership of the Infrastructure Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Infrastructure Safety Sub-Committee

Radiation Safety Sub-Committee (RSSC)


Subject to any particular or general direction that may from time to time be given by the Work Health and Safety Committee (WHSC), the Radiation Safety Sub-Committee (RSSC) will:

  • Advise on all matters relating to work with Ionising Radiations in UCL.
  • Implement UCL policy with respect to work with Ionising Radiations in UCL.
  • Monitor the use of ionising radiations in UCL.
  • Advise on and monitor work involving security rated radioactive materials in UCL.
  • Report to the WHSC any matters deemed significant by the Committee.

> Membership of the Radiation Safety Sub-Committee
> Terms of Reference of the Radiation Safety Sub-Committee

Departmental Safety Committees


To assist and advise the Head of Department on planning, prioritisation and implementation of measures to manage the risks of departmental activities, the Head of Department should constitute a Departmental Safety Committee or management group whose size, representation and meeting frequency should be commensurate with the magnitude of the risk and complexity of departmental activity.

This information should be recorded in the committee's Terms of Reference that should be reviewed annually. Where appropriate, and especially in smaller departments, health and safety matters should be considered regularly at departmental management meetings. The role of the Departmental Safety Committee will cover the following:

  • Ensuring significant risks are being managed effectively.
  • Developing actions to meet corporate and departmental safety objectives.
  • Developing a programme of active monitoring (visits, checks and inspections) and the recording of significant findings and improvement actions.
  • Establishing communication and consultation arrangements with staff, including where appropriate, local union safety representatives.
  • Establishing effective communication and co-operation arrangements with other parties in shared workplaces.
  • Monitor and review health and safety performance which should include:
    • progress against health and safety action plans.
    • accidents and incidents trends, investigations and lessons learned.
    • work-related ill-health statistics and trends.
    • analysis from active monitoring including schedules, responsibilities, training and risk assessments.
    • contractors and partners performance.
    • key risks and issues.
    • health and safety training needs and completion of courses.
    • issues to be escalated to other forums.
    • issues to be escalated to the UCL HSC for matters of UCL policy and standards or those affecting UCL more widely.

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Chapter 3.3 - Departmental specialist safety roles


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Chapter 3.5 - Union appointed health and safety representatives

Last updated: Tuesday, August 8, 2023