PPE for UK Trades — The Law, Who Pays and the PPE Regulations Explained (2026)

PPE Is the Last Line of Defence

The single most important principle to grasp is that PPE sits at the very bottom of the hierarchy of control. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, you are required to control risks at source first — by eliminating the hazard, substituting it for something safer, applying engineering controls (extraction, guarding, dust suppression) and then administrative controls (safe systems of work, training, job rotation). Only the residual risk that remains after all of that should be managed with PPE.

This matters because the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) treats PPE-first thinking as a red flag. Handing a worker a dust mask and calling the job safe — when on-tool extraction or water suppression would have removed most of the dust at source — is not compliance. PPE protects only the person wearing it, only when it is worn, and only when it is the right type, fitted correctly and in good condition. It does nothing to make the workplace itself safer. Use it for the risk you cannot reasonably control any other way, not as a substitute for controlling the risk.

The Legal Backdrop — PPER 1992 and the 2022 Changes

The core law is the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (PPER 1992). These regulations require employers to provide suitable PPE wherever risks cannot be adequately controlled by other means. They have applied to British workplaces for over three decades and remain the foundation of PPE duties.

The important recent change is the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 — PPER 2022 — which came into force on 6 April 2022. Before this amendment, PPER 1992 duties applied only to employees. PPER 2022 extended those duties to a wider group known as "limb (b) workers" — casual labour, agency staff and many of the self-employed-in-name-only workers that the construction sector relies on heavily.

In practical terms, if you engage a labourer through an agency, take on casual help for a busy week, or use a worker who is economically dependent on you rather than running a genuine business of their own, your PPE duties towards them are now broadly the same as towards a directly employed worker. You must assess their PPE needs, provide suitable equipment and ensure it is used. This is one of the most commonly overlooked compliance points in the trades, and it caught a lot of firms out when it landed.

Who Pays? The Free-of-Charge Rule

This one is simple and absolute: PPE must be provided free of charge. It is unlawful for an employer to charge an employee — or a limb (b) worker — for PPE that is needed to do their job safely. That includes deducting the cost from wages, requiring the worker to buy it themselves, or charging a "deposit" that is forfeited if the item is not returned in perfect condition.

Section 9 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 reinforces this: no charge may be made for anything done or provided to comply with a statutory health and safety requirement. So if PPE is legally required for the task, the cost falls on the business, full stop. The only grey area is genuinely optional clothing a worker chooses for comfort rather than protection — but the moment an item is doing a protective job, you pay for it. Charging for safety boots, gloves, glasses or RPE that the job requires is a breach.

Your Duties as an Employer

Providing the kit is only part of the job. PPER 1992 (as amended) places a set of practical duties on you, and HSE will look for evidence that each one is being met:

• Assess and provide: identify which residual risks need PPE, and provide PPE that is suitable for the specific hazard and the conditions of use.
• Ensure fit and compatibility: PPE must fit the individual wearing it. Where someone wears more than one item — say a hard hat, ear defenders and eye protection together — the items must be compatible and not undermine each other.
• Maintain and replace: keep PPE in good, clean, working order and replace it when it is damaged, worn out or past its service life.
• Provide storage: give workers somewhere clean and dry to store PPE when it is not in use, so it stays serviceable.
• Train and inform: tell workers what the PPE protects against, show them how to use, fit, check and maintain it, and explain its limitations.
• Ensure it is used: the duty does not end at issue. You must take reasonable steps to make sure PPE is actually worn correctly, and act when it is not.

The Main Types of PPE for Trades

Different trades and tasks call for different protection. Here are the main categories you are likely to be issuing, and when each is needed.

Head Protection

Safety helmets are required wherever there is a risk of falling or flying objects or head impact — most construction sites mandate them as standard. Bump caps are a lighter alternative for confined low-headroom work (lofts, plant rooms) where the only risk is striking a fixed object, not falling materials. They are not interchangeable: a bump cap offers no protection against falling objects.

Eye Protection

Match the eye protection to the hazard. Impact-rated safety glasses or goggles for cutting, grinding, chiselling and using powder-actuated tools; sealed goggles for dust and splash; and the correct shade of welding filter for hot work. The wrong specification offers a false sense of security — general safety glasses will not protect against an arc-eye injury from welding.

Hand Protection

Gloves are hazard-specific. Cut-resistant gloves for handling sheet metal, glass and blades; chemical-resistant gloves for solvents, resins, cement and cleaning products; and anti-vibration gloves as one part — never the whole answer — of managing hand-arm vibration. A glove suited to one hazard may be useless or even dangerous for another, so select by task.

Foot Protection

Safety footwear with toe protection guards against crush and impact injuries; a penetration-resistant midsole protects against nails and sharp debris underfoot, which is a constant hazard on construction and refurbishment sites. Slip resistance and ankle support matter too on uneven or wet ground.

High-Visibility Clothing

Hi-vis is required wherever workers need to be seen — near moving plant and vehicles, on or beside the highway, and in low-light conditions. The class of garment needed rises with the speed of traffic and the level of risk.

Respiratory Protection (RPE)

RPE protects against dusts, fumes, vapours and gases — silica dust from cutting stone and concrete, wood dust, isocyanate paint mists and more. RPE is closely tied to your COSHH assessment, which identifies the substances present and the level of exposure. Crucially, any tight-fitting RPE — disposable masks, half masks and full-face masks that seal to the skin — must be face fit tested on the individual who will wear it, because a mask that does not seal provides little protection. Facial hair breaks the seal, so tight-fitting RPE and beards do not mix.

Hearing Protection

Ear defenders or plugs are needed where noise exposure reaches the action levels set out in the Control of Noise at Work Regulations. Like RPE, hearing protection is the last resort — you should first reduce noise at source through quieter equipment and work methods. Provide protection that reduces noise to a safe level without over-protecting, which can isolate the wearer from warning signals.

Fall Protection Harnesses

Fall-arrest and work-restraint harnesses are a specialist category of PPE used for working at height where collective measures (guardrails, scaffolds, MEWPs) are not reasonably practicable. They require a suitable anchor point, a rescue plan, formal training and regular thorough examination. Do not treat a harness as everyday kit — it is a managed system, not a hand-out item.

Selecting the Right PPE

Buying PPE is not simply a matter of grabbing the cheapest box. Three things determine whether the equipment will actually protect your worker:

• CE / UKCA marking: PPE sold in Great Britain must carry a UKCA mark (or, during the recognised transition, a CE mark) showing it meets the relevant safety standard. Unmarked or counterfeit PPE bought from unknown online sellers is a real risk — verify the source.
• The right standard for the hazard: each PPE type has its own product standard (for example impact-rated eye protection, cut-level gloves, toe-protection footwear). Match the marked standard to the specific hazard you assessed — a high-spec glove for the wrong hazard is still the wrong glove.
• Fit and comfort: PPE that is uncomfortable, badly sized or gets in the way will not be worn consistently, and PPE that is not worn protects nobody. Involve workers in selection, offer size options, and treat comfort as a compliance issue rather than a luxury.

Quick Reference: PPE for UK Trades

Managing and Recording PPE Issue

Compliance is partly about doing the right thing and partly about being able to prove it. If HSE visits, or if there is an incident and an insurer or the courts ask questions, you need records: what PPE you assessed as necessary, what you issued, to whom, when, and what training and fit testing was carried out. A drawer full of unsigned receipts is not evidence — a clear, dated issue record is.

Keep a PPE issue log that captures the worker, the item, the date issued, replacement dates and any face fit test results for RPE. Tie it to your training records so you can show that each worker was instructed in using the equipment they were given. Keeping this organised in a system like Trade2Base — alongside your other certification and training records — means you can produce the proof in minutes rather than digging through a pile of paperwork when it matters most.

Review your PPE provision periodically and whenever work changes: new substances, new tools, new sites or new workers can all change what protection is needed. PPE is not a one-off purchase — it is an ongoing duty, and the firms that treat it that way are the ones that stay on the right side of the law and keep their people safe.