Office Space Planning and the Law

How does the law affect office space planning?

The law can quite often be a minefield and there are a number of pieces of legislation, approved codes of practice and building regulations that affect aspects of the design of office space such how many people you can fit in an office and how it is laid out. But which ones as an employer, space planner or designer do we need to know about? In this article and subsequent articles we will explore what the law says about the workplace and what it means in practice.

The Six-Pack

So what does the law say about the workplace?

The law affecting employees’ rights in the workplace has six primary pieces of legislation, often known as the “6 pack”. These are:

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992. This places a duty on the Employer to ensure the safety, health and welfare of their employees. As an employer you must: identify and reduce any risks in your workplace, have implemented health and safety polices, have competent people overseeing health and safety and provide workplace information and training. From a space planning perspective this means having process and procedures in place (and suitably qualified people involved) to ensure that thealth and safety matters are considered and all risks are identified and mitigated where possible when laying out or changing an office and in the purchase of furniture, fittings and equipment.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 – this law and its approved code of practice covers many aspects of the provision of facilities for staff and affects the design and layout of workplaces including toilet provision, ventilation, temperature and space per person (see Office Capacity Limitations and Toilet Provision in Offices for further information).
Display Screen Equipment (DSE) Regulations 1992 – this law covers the use of display screen equipment by employees and places a duty on the employer to put in place policies and procedures to reduce risks in the use of display screen equipment such as undertaking risk assessments, providing suitable furniture and making reasonable adjustments to the workplace.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 – although not so relevant to workplace design this act places a duty on the employer to protect their workforce from risk and injury through manual handling. From a design perspective, this combined with the Construction, Design and Management (CDM) regulations would necessitate office designers to consider how manual handling risks (or even the need for manual handling) can be reduced or eliminated by appropriate workplace design and furniture selection.
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 – these regulations place a duty on the employer to ensure that any equipment supplied to or used by their workforce is suitable, safe and properly maintained and that relevant information and training is provided. Again one of the main impacts this legislation has on the design of an office would be in the selection of appropriate and safe furniture for the task being performed.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulations 1992 – the employer must make sure that appropriate personal protective equipment is supplied to staff and there are trained in its use. From a design perspective (although not specifically mentioned in the regulations) places for storage of PPE should be provided in locations that encourage the use of PPE for example providing lockers near to the workplace or on the way out of the office for field staff so that is easy for them to collect their PPE on the way out.

Other Relevant Legislation and Guidance

There are also a number of additional pieces of legislation that impact the design and layout of office space:

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM Regulations) – these regulations are intended to ensure that health and safety issues are considered and where possible designed out during the design and construction of building projects. From a workplace design perspective the Client (usually the owner or occupier of the office) has overall responsibility for the successful management of health and safety in a construction project and must employ suitability qualified and experienced companies or individuals to act as two primary duty holders – the principal design and principal contractor.
Equality Act 2010 – the Equality Act supersedes the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (often known as the DDA regulations). It not only maintains and enhances the protection given to disabled people in the workplace but also made it unlawful to discriminate against nine protected characteristics:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
From an office design perspective the employer must consider making ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace for an employee or job applicant with any one of the protected characteristics. These could include ensuring the workplace can accommodate wheelchair users, ensuring way finding is suitable for blind or partial sighted people and providing “toilets for all” to prevent a transsexual or gender fluid member of staff feeling harassed or victimised. We will explore the law and good practice in the provision of toilet facilities in a future design guide.
The Building Regulations 2010 – The building regulations cover the minimum design standards that must be achieved for a range of different facilities, including offices. They include a set of “approved documents” which stipulate the standards that must be achieved for different aspects of a building. For the workplace the key sections are, amongst others, Part B – Fire Safety, Part G – Sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency, and Part M volume 2 – Access to and use of buildings other than dwellings.

There are also numerous British Standards that apply and need to be taken account of.

Further Baker Stuart Guides

Office Design and Space Planning Series

Agile Working Series

What is Agile Working – A Baker Stuart Guide
The Case for Change – the Benefits of Agile Working
The A to Z of Agile Working – An Agile Working Terms Dictionary
How to Define an Agile Working Policy (coming soon)

Contact Us

We are always happy to help with advice. If you would like us to contact you or come to see you please contact us here.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as a guide only, to give you general information and a general understanding of the topics. We strive to provide you with accurate information that can help you learn more about the topics covered on the website, but we cannot take personal or legal responsibility for your use of this information. We do not warrant the accuracy of any of the information contained in this article or elsewhere on our website and you should always check the latest official publications and seek the advice of a suitably qualified professional.

Joshua Press

About Baker Stuart

We are an independent specialist consultancy providing a comprehensive range of innovative workplace strategy, workplace management and change, move management, project management and programme management services. Thinking about optimising your organisation? Get in touch with us here.

About the Author		Colin Stuart is a specialist in workplace consultancy and accommodation strategy. He has an award winning track record in the design and delivery of workplace transformation projects. A published author and speaker with an intrinsic knowledge of the drivers of corporate clients both in the public and private sector and how property can respond to those drivers in order to deliver maximum benefit to the business he has delivered major change programmes and real estate projects in both the public and private sector.
About Baker Stuart		Baker Stuart are a specialist consultancy who provide a range of innovative services to occupiers. Being focused solely on the workplace this has allowed us to develop expertise in depth in the analysis of our Clients' businesses, the creation and delivery of effective real estate strategies and corresponding office environments. We provide a range of consultancy services including workplace analysis, workplace consultancy, accommodation strategy, project & programme management, project procurement, furniture consultancy, contract administration, design management, change management and relocation consultancy. We have an award winning track record and have helped businesses both public and private sector, from SMEs to multinationals to use the working environment as a catalyst to drive positive behavioural change.