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PPE and workwear: what UK law requires you to provide

For office managers, practice managers and owner-operators who now have to decide what to buy, in what spec, and how to show it meets the rule.

Read the buying guides for PPE and workwear categories

What HSE requires employers to provide

What the law requires

In the United Kingdom, an employer must provide personal protective equipment (PPE) free of charge wherever a risk to health or safety cannot be removed or controlled by any other means. This duty sits under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations, enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The equipment has to fit the person wearing it and suit the actual task, not just the job title on their contract.

Who the duty covers

The duty falls on the employer, and it runs alongside the wider duty to assess the risks of a job before work starts rather than after something has gone wrong. It applies to people employed to do the work in question. It does not extend automatically to visitors on site, to contractors who are employed by someone else, or to self-employed workers supplying their own equipment under their own arrangements, though whoever controls the site can still carry responsibility for what happens on it.

Where HSE draws the line

HSE treats PPE as the last step, not the first one. Before reaching for protective equipment, an employer is expected to try removing the hazard altogether or controlling it another way, such as guarding a machine or changing how a task is done. Where PPE is genuinely what's left once those steps have been taken, HSE expects it to be kept in working order, replaced once it stops doing its job, and matched to the specific hazard rather than handed out as a general precaution.

Workwear with no protective function, a branded polo shirt or a standard uniform, sits outside this duty entirely. The distinction matters when you're buying, because a garment chosen to look the part is a different purchase from one bought to meet a documented risk, and putting both on the same invoice doesn't change which one the law actually requires.

None of this replaces a risk assessment carried out for your own workplace. HSE's own guidance on assessing workstation risks works through the same idea in a different setting, and the same logic applies here: identify the hazard first, then decide what it actually calls for.

Before you order

Specification questions for each type of PPE

PPE is not one purchase, it is several, and the right specification depends on the hazard it is meant to control.

  • Eye and face protection: what standard is marked on the lens

    Safety glasses and goggles carry a marking that tells you what impact or splash they are rated to resist, and the wrong rating leaves a real gap against the actual task.

  • Hand protection: which hazard the glove is rated against

    Cut resistance, chemical resistance and grip are different ratings, and a glove chosen for one can offer almost nothing against another.

  • Hi-vis clothing: which class fits the working environment

    Roadside work, warehouse work and low-light work carry different visibility requirements, and the garment needs to match the environment it will actually be worn in.

  • Safety footwear: toe protection and sole rating for the floor in question

    A toecap rating protects against impact, a sole rating protects against penetration or slip, and a site with both hazards needs a boot rated for both.

  • Respiratory protection: what the mask is filtering out

    Dust masks, particulate respirators and gas-specific filters are not interchangeable, and the correct choice depends on what is actually in the air being worked in.

  • Hearing protection: how much noise reduction the task needs

    Ear defenders and ear plugs are rated by how much sound they block, and matching that rating to the noise level of the task is the point of the specification.

  • Fit and sizing

    PPE that meets the right standard but does not fit the person wearing it still fails to protect them, so sizing needs checking against the individual.

These are the questions to put to a supplier before you order. Whether a specific product meets a given standard is for the manufacturer's documentation and the supplier's own listing.

Getting the specification right before you buy

Each guide sets out the questions worth asking for a category of PPE or workwear, so what you order matches what the job actually needs.

Read the buying guides