Guide to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application)

Regulations 2007
Changing rooms should be sufficiently large and have facilities to enable each
person at work to lock away his or her clothes during working hours and if the
nature of the work so requires (e.g. laboratory, chemical works, electroplating)
separate lockers for work clothes should also be provided.
When changing rooms are provided, they should:
Workplace
• Be readily accessible from workrooms
• Be provided in conjunction with any shower or bathing accommodation,
and have easy communication with it
• Have easy communication with the clothing accommodation
• Contain adequate seating
• Be conveniently situated for the use of employees using facilities for
taking meals.
For offices and for certain industries, satisfactory changing facilities may consist of
separate pegs or hooks at least 31 cm apart laterally for each employee for outer
clothing such as coats, overalls or aprons, which can be changed in workrooms
where there are no risks to health and safety. In addition, some provision for
personal effects must be made.
Provision needs to be made to dry clothing or overalls that have become damp due
to the nature of the work.
Where extensive changing is necessary, separate cloakroom facilities must be
provided for men and women except when the facilities are provided in a room
intended to be used by only one person, the door of which is capable of being
secured from the inside.
Regulation 22: Accommodation areas at a place of work
22. An employer shall ensure that fixed living accommodation areas provided for
employees at a place of work—
(a) are safe and without risk to health, and
(b) unless used in exceptional cases—
(i) have sufficient sanitary equipment,
(ii) are equipped with beds, cupboards, tables and seats with backs,
taking account of the number of persons at work, and
(iii) are allocated taking account, where appropriate, of the
presence of persons of both sexes.
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