Programme 05 · Working Time Regulations 1998
Night-worker health assessments
The night-worker assessment is the surveillance duty employers most often do not realise they have. It is triggered by the shift pattern alone, with no exposure threshold to measure and no argument to be had, and the duty is to offer it, which means the offer itself has to be evidenced.
Owed on the shift pattern alone. No exposure threshold, nothing to measure, and the offer itself has to be evidenced.
The duty
What the Working Time Regulations require
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, an employer must offer a free health assessment to a worker before assigning them to night work, and at regular intervals afterwards. Night time is normally the period between 11pm and 6am, and a night worker is broadly someone who works at least three hours of their daily working time during that period on the majority of days they work, or who is defined as one by a collective or workforce agreement.
- The duty is to offer, not to compelA worker may decline. But a declined offer only protects you if you can show it was made, so the offer and any refusal both have to be recorded.
- Before assignment, and regularly afterThe assessment comes before someone starts night work, not after they have been doing it for six months. Repeat assessments are then offered at regular intervals, commonly annually.
- Free to the workerThe cost sits with the employer, and the assessment should be in work time where practicable.
- Young workers get moreFor workers under 18 the assessment covers health and capacities, which is a broader test than for adults.
Who is in scope
Where the definition catches people unexpectedly
Employers tend to think of night workers as permanent night shift. The definition is wider, and rotating patterns frequently qualify. Commonly in scope:
- Rotating shift patterns including regular nights, in manufacturing and food production
- Warehouse, distribution and fulfilment operations running through the night
- Transport, logistics and trunking drivers
- Security, cleaning and facilities teams working overnight on client sites
- Healthcare, care homes and emergency services
- Hospitality and late licensed premises where shifts run past 11pm
- Maintenance teams doing planned overnight shutdown work on a regular basis
The programme
What the assessment covers
The assessment asks whether this worker is fit to work nights, and whether night work is affecting their health. It is usually questionnaire-led, with clinical review where answers warrant it, and it looks at the conditions that night work genuinely worsens.
- Sleep and daytime alertnessSleep quality and duration, excessive sleepiness, and any sleepiness while driving, which is a safety question as much as a health one.
- Conditions affected by shift workDiabetes, particularly where treatment risks hypoglycaemia; epilepsy and seizure disorders; cardiovascular disease; gastrointestinal disorders; and mental health conditions where sleep disruption is a known trigger.
- Medication and timingTreatments whose effectiveness or safety depends on a stable daily rhythm, and medication with sedative effects.
- The commuteDriving home after a night shift is one of the highest-risk parts of night work, and is routinely left out of the risk assessment.
When something is found
The transfer duty
Where a registered medical practitioner advises that a worker is suffering health problems connected with the fact that they work nights, the employer must, where possible, transfer them to suitable day work. That is a stronger obligation than in most of the other programmes, and it means the outcome of a night-worker assessment can have direct rostering consequences.
In practice this is far easier to manage when the assessment happens before assignment rather than after a problem has developed, which is exactly the order the regulations set out.
How Polarisk runs it
The programme, without the administration
The duty is mapped
Roles map to night-worker assessments on the exposure criteria, so the list of who is owed an assessment is derived rather than remembered. Workers who need none are evidenced as such.
Each worker answers privately
A single-use link, bound to that person at issue and spent on use. Your organisation's own account is refused at the answers.
Protocol triages, a human judges
Responses are scored against the protocol and drafted for review. A registered clinician reads every case and signs under their own name and registration number.
The cycle runs itself
Due dates, reminders and lapse tracking are handled. You are told who has not answered, by name, while there is still time to act.
Evidence is generated
The audit pack comes from the live record: duty map, completion by site, certificate register and the sign-off trail behind each judgment.
Appointed-Doctor streams
Asbestos, lead, ionising radiation and compressed air require an HSE Appointed Doctor. We do not run those, and will say so rather than quote for them.
Questions
Common questions
Who exactly counts as a night worker?
Broadly, someone who normally works at least three hours of their daily working time during night time, usually 11pm to 6am, on the majority of the days they work, or who is defined as a night worker by a collective or workforce agreement. Rotating shift patterns frequently qualify, which surprises employers who assume the duty only covers permanent nights.
What if a worker refuses the assessment?
They may. The duty is to offer a free assessment, not to force one. But an unrecorded offer is worth nothing at audit, so the offer, the date and any refusal all need to be on the record. Polarisk records a declined offer as a completed obligation with the refusal attached, rather than leaving the worker sitting in the overdue list forever.
How often do repeat assessments have to happen?
The regulations require assessments at regular intervals without fixing a single number. Annual is the common practice and is generally defensible. More frequent assessment is appropriate where a worker has a condition that night work affects, or where their pattern of work changes substantially.
Does a night-worker assessment need a doctor?
Routine assessments are usually questionnaire-led with review by a suitably qualified occupational health professional. A doctor becomes necessary where the findings require clinical judgment, and specifically for the transfer duty: the obligation to move a worker to suitable day work is triggered by the advice of a registered medical practitioner.
We run 24-hour operations and have never done these. How bad is that?
Common, and fixable. This is the programme with the widest gap between who is in scope and who has a record, because it is triggered by rostering rather than by anything a safety team measures. The practical first step is establishing how many of your people meet the definition, which the surveillance check will estimate, then working through the population rather than trying to do everyone at once.
Start here
Find out what you owe before an inspector does
Four questions about your workforce and its exposures. You will get an estimate of the assessments owed each year, by programme, and where your current arrangement leaves a gap. No sign-up and no personal data.