As part of a subscription to the Legislation Update Service (LUS) we offer a helpline service. Ran by experts, the free legislation helpline provides support to understand the general application of environment, health and safety legislation, as well as providing clarity on updates to your legislation register.
Our LUS subscriber helpline service helps provide clarity on the general application of environment, health and safety legislation. We get some great questions and thought you might be interested in the answers we gave.
We’ve compiled some recent questions that cover a wide range of topics which may be of interest.
The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2024 doesn’t give direct duties for businesses, it mainly provides a detailed list of items falling under each recyclable waste stream.
However, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, you have a duty to ensure you have arrangements in place for the separate collection of recyclable waste streams, and that you must segregate these as agreed with your waste collector. From the 31st March 2025, waste collectors will require the following recyclable materials to be separated from each other when collecting them from certain non-domestic premises (including industrial and commercial sites):
- glass;
- metal;
- plastic;
- paper and card;
- food waste; and
- garden waste (not applicable for industrial and commercial premises).
There is no legal requirement that would require full retraining after a period of sickness although you may wish to provide refresher training when they return to ensure familiarity.
Under an Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) L117- Rider-operated lift trucks, operator training and safe use, monitoring and refresher training is required to make sure they continue to operate lift trucks safely. There is no set time period for refresher training, but it is recommended at a minimum between every 3-5 years or sooner if the work area is changed or after an incident or near miss.
If there is a fitness concern with the operator, it is recommended to re-evaluate them and, if necessary, retest their competence.
For further information, the HSE provides guidance for employers here.
The Companies Act 2006 defines small, medium, and large companies based on meeting at least two of the following criteria: turnover, asset value, and number of employees.
From 6th April 2025, these thresholds will change, with the turnover and asset value limits for large companies increasing. Under the new criteria, a company will be classified as large if it meets at least two of the following:
- Turnover of £54 million or more.
- Asset value of £27 million or more.
- 250 or more employees.
Since 4th July 2020, PFOA, its salts, and related compounds have been prohibited from manufacture, sale, or use, with some exemptions. One of these exemptions allowed foam extinguishers containing PFOA to still be used until 4th July 2025, subject to conditions. Detailed information on this can be found under point 6 in the 4th column of the Annex.
From 4th July 2025 onwards, fire extinguishers with foam containing PFOA can no longer be used for any reason. All aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) extinguishers containing PFOA must be replaced by this date with suitable alternatives that do not contain banned substances.
Drinks covered by the scheme that are sold via vending machines will need to charge the deposit amount in the same way as all retailers do but are not required to provide return points.
Regarding online retailers, they will not be required to offer a return point but can register as a takeback service provider and collect empty containers at the point of delivery to refund the deposit.
On producer registration, the scheme operator for England and Northern Ireland has not yet been appointed, so pre-registration is currently not possible.
Drinks covered by the scheme that are sold via vending machines will need to charge the deposit amount in the same way as all retailers do but are not required to provide return points.
Regarding online retailers, they will not be required to offer a return point but can register as a takeback service provider and collect empty containers at the point of delivery to refund the deposit.
On producer registration, the scheme operator for England and Northern Ireland has not yet been appointed, so pre-registration is currently not possible.
