Night worker health assessments: the legal duty most SMEs have never heard of

The Working Time Regulations 1998 are best known for the 48-hour week and holiday rights. Buried in Regulation 7 is a duty with a much lower profile: employers must offer every night worker a free health assessment before they begin night work, and at regular intervals afterwards.

A night worker is, broadly, someone who works at least three hours between 11pm and 6am as a normal course. That catches far more businesses than people expect — care providers, logistics, hospitality, manufacturing, security, cleaning contractors and 24-hour retail among them.

The good news is that compliance is genuinely cheap and simple. The assessment is a health questionnaire reviewed by a clinician, escalating to a consultation only where answers indicate a problem such as a sleep disorder, diabetes or a heart condition that night work could worsen. Workers cannot be forced to accept the assessment — the duty is to offer it, and to keep records showing you did.

Where an assessment finds night work is harming someone’s health, you must transfer them to suitable day work where it exists. That, too, is easier managed early than litigated later.

Our night worker service handles the whole cycle — questionnaires, clinical review, records and annual recalls — for £45 per assessment. If you’re not sure whether the duty applies to your rotas, our free introductory meeting will tell you in half an hour.