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Guide · Kits and defibrillators
Most workplaces have a green first aid box on the wall, but few people are sure it’s the right one. This article explains what Northern Ireland law and guidance expect, where a BS 8599-1 kit fits, what to add or leave out, and how to keep your kit ready.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Northern Ireland law doesn’t list what goes in a first aid kit. It requires equipment that’s adequate and appropriate for your workplace.
As a starting point, the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) suggests sterile dressings, plasters, eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, disposable gloves and a first aid guidance leaflet. Our advice is to start with a kit made to the British Standard BS 8599-1, in the size that fits your risk and the number of people on site. It covers most of that list and more.
Then think about what’s likely to happen at your work, what you’d need to treat it, and whether your people are trained to use it. A tourniquet is no use if nobody has been trained to manage catastrophic bleeding. Keep tablets and medicines out, and make one person responsible for checking the kit after every use and at least once a month.
What does a basic workplace first aid kit need?
It’s easy for a first aid box to drift: a dressing used and not replaced, eye wash past its date, painkillers added just in case.
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982 require employers to provide equipment and facilities that are “adequate and appropriate in the circumstances” for giving first aid at work, and to tell employees where they are. The Regulations don’t list that equipment. Your first aid needs assessment decides what it means for your workplace.
For workplaces with low-level hazards, HSENI suggests a minimum stock of:
a leaflet with general first aid guidance;
individually wrapped sterile plasters in assorted sizes (hypoallergenic if needed);
sterile eye pads;
individually wrapped triangular bandages, preferably sterile;
safety pins;
large and medium-sized sterile, individually wrapped, unmedicated wound dressings;
disposable gloves.
Source: HSENI, First aid at work, “What should I put in the first-aid box?”. HSENI describes this as a suggested contents list only.
Treat that list as the floor, not the finished kit. It deals with cuts, wounds and eye injuries, but it has nothing for burns.
Is a BS 8599-1 kit enough?
BS 8599-1 is the British Standard for the contents of workplace first aid kits. It isn’t law. Guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which HSENI follows, says employers may wish to refer to it, but that the contents should reflect your needs assessment whichever kit you use.
The standard sets out small, medium and large workplace kits, plus travel kits, personal issue kits and critical injury packs for serious bleeding. The workplace kits cover HSENI’s list apart from safety pins, and add items such as a burns dressing, a foil blanket, shears for cutting clothing, cleansing wipes and a resuscitation face shield.
The standard sizes kits by risk and the number of people on site. Lower-risk workplaces need a small kit for fewer than 25 people, a medium kit for 25 to 100, and one large kit per 100. Higher-risk workplaces need a small kit for fewer than 5 people, a medium kit for 5 to 25, and one large kit per 25.
The current version, BS 8599-1:2019+A1:2026, came out in April 2026. From what has been published about it, it doesn’t change what goes in the standard kits, so an in-date kit bought to the 2019 version is still fine. It adds burns kits and eye wash kits where your assessment finds those risks and, for the first time, defibrillators (AEDs): it expects an AED that can be reached within two minutes on any site with five or more people present. That’s the standard, not the law. HSE’s guidance says health and safety legislation doesn’t require a workplace AED, so whether you provide one is a decision for your needs assessment. If you have a lot of people on site, or an ambulance could take a while to reach you, we think it deserves serious thought. Our article on whether you need a defibrillator at work explains how to decide.
So start with a BS 8599-1 kit in the right size. It’s a sensible base for most workplaces and easy to refill. But it’s a starting point, not proof that your kit is adequate. That depends on what could happen at your work.
What your work might add, and what to leave out
Once you have the base kit, ask three questions. What’s likely to happen here? What would we need to treat it? And has someone been trained to use it? The last question matters as much as the first two: a tourniquet or a haemostatic dressing in the box adds nothing if nobody has been trained to manage catastrophic bleeding.
HSE’s guidance gives examples of extras your assessment may point to. You can keep them in the kit if there’s room, or store them alongside it.
- Extra itemBurns dressings or a burns kit
- When it’s worth addingKitchens, hot work, hot liquids, or chemical and electrical risks. A BS 8599-1 kit has only one or two burns dressings.
- Extra itemSterile water or saline for washing eyes and wounds
- When it’s worth addingWhere clean tap water isn’t readily available. The guidance suggests at least one litre in sealed, disposable containers, not reused once opened.
- Extra itemFoil blankets
- When it’s worth addingOutdoor, cold or remote work, or wherever someone may wait a while for an ambulance.
- Extra itemHaemostatic dressings (which help blood to clot), wound packing and tourniquets
- When it’s worth addingWhere the assessment finds a real risk of life-threatening bleeding, such as from cutting tools and machinery, or in forestry, farming or construction. Only with training to match.
- Extra itemSpecialist items, such as calcium gluconate gel for hydrofluoric acid burns
- When it’s worth addingOnly for that specific hazard, stored near it, with access limited to people trained to use them.
Source: HSE, First aid at work: Guidance on Regulations (L74), paragraphs 39 to 41.
Where first-aiders may have to manage life-threatening bleeding, HSE’s guidance says their training should include it. Our guide to choosing Emergency First Aid at Work or First Aid at Work explains how training fits the risks you’ve identified.
Suppose an office of 20 people with no unusual hazards. A small BS 8599-1 kit, kept where everyone can reach it and checked monthly, is likely to be enough. Adding a tourniquet nobody is trained to use wouldn’t make it any safer.
Now suppose a café with 12 staff keeps a small BS 8599-1 kit in the office upstairs. The likeliest injury is a burn in the kitchen, a floor away. We’d keep the kit, add burns dressings, and put first aid supplies in or right next to the kitchen. The hazard decides what to add, and where injuries happen decides where it goes.
Finally, suppose a grounds maintenance firm sends six staff out in two vans with strimmers and a chainsaw, often far from running water or a quick ambulance. The guidance suggests travel kits for mobile staff or in the vehicles they use, so each van needs its own kit, sterile water and someone named to restock it. If serious bleeding is a real risk, a tourniquet and haemostatic dressings make sense, with training to use them. BS 8599-2 is the British Standard for vehicle kits, and some passenger vehicles, such as buses, have their own legal rules.
Leave tablets and medicines out. HSENI recommends that you don’t keep them in the first aid box, and HSE’s guidance explains why: “First aid at work does not include giving tablets or medicines to treat illness. The only exception to this is where aspirin is used as first aid to a casualty with a suspected heart attack in accordance with currently accepted first-aid practice.” Even so, it recommends that tablets and medicines aren’t kept in the first aid container (L74, paragraph 42). If your first-aiders are trained to give aspirin, agree separately where it’s kept and who checks it. Keep anything else that isn’t for first aid out of the box too.
Keeping your kit ready to use
Give one named person the job of looking after each kit. That’s often your appointed person, because looking after first aid equipment is part of the role, or one of your first-aiders.
HSE’s guidance says kits should be examined frequently and restocked soon after use, with spare supplies kept on site, but it doesn’t set a timetable. Our advice is to check every kit, including vehicle kits, after it’s used and at least once a month:
everything on the contents list is there and sealed;
nothing is past its expiry date, especially sterile items, eye wash and sterile water;
anything used or out of date is replaced from spare stock, and out-of-date items are disposed of safely.
If a sterile item has no expiry date, ask the manufacturer how long it can be kept.
The guidance also expects at least one kit on each site, and more on large sites. Kits should be easy to reach, preferably near hand-washing facilities, protected from dust and damp, and marked with a white cross on a green background. In practice, that can mean a kit on each floor or in each building, and kits that can be reached whenever people are working, not locked in an office that opens after the first shift starts.
Finally, tell people where the kits are and who looks after them. The Northern Ireland Regulations require you to tell employees where first aid equipment is kept, and HSE’s guidance says a clear notice will usually do.
NORTHLIGHT TIP
Keep a check record in the lid
Tape the contents list inside the lid, with space for the date and initials. Whoever checks the kit ticks it off, notes anything used or out of date, and orders replacements the same day. Anyone opening the box can then see when it was last checked.
Where to buy a first aid kit in Northern Ireland
We don’t sell first aid kits or earn anything from these suppliers. They’re here to save you a search. If you’re unsure what your workplace needs, we’re happy to talk it through and point you to the right information, with nothing to sell you.
The big online retailers, such as Amazon, carry plenty of kits. If you buy there, make sure the listing clearly states BS 8599-1 and the kit size, and buy from an established seller. Specialist online suppliers stock BS 8599-1 kits, refills, and burns and eye wash kits, including:
Check their delivery terms to Northern Ireland before you order.
If you’d rather talk to someone local, these firms supply first aid and safety equipment from premises in Northern Ireland and can give practical advice on what to choose. Ring ahead to check stock and whether you can collect in person.
Norsemen Safety & Industrial Supplies, Sydenham Road, Belfast;
Arco, Mayfield Link, Mallusk;
SJS First Aid & Hygiene Supplies, Belmont Road, Belfast (028 9543 8693);
PJD Safety Supplies, Ballygawley;
Mark 1 Agencies, Campsie, Londonderry;
Screwfix, which has trade counters across Northern Ireland.
Pharmacies are handy for personal kits and single items, but better for topping up than for equipping a workplace.
Whatever you buy, check:
that a standard kit says BS 8599-1, and which size;
that the contents match what your assessment identified, including any extras;
that refills are available, so you can restock without replacing the box;
the expiry dates, especially on sterile items, eye wash and sterile water.
THE NORTHLIGHT TAKEAWAY
Is your first aid kit ready?
01
Start with the basics
Check every kit holds at least HSENI’s suggested items, or use a BS 8599-1 kit in the right size.
02
Add for your risks
Add only what your work could call for, such as burns dressings or sterile eye wash, and only equipment people are trained to use.
03
Put kits where they’re needed
Have at least one on each site, with more for separate floors, buildings, shifts and vehicles.
04
Name who checks it
One person restocks it after every use, checks it at least monthly and keeps medicines out.
KEEP READING
Read next
TRAINING FOR THIS TOPIC
Courses that cover this
Regulated qualifications. Public dates in Belfast, Mallusk and Ballymena, or at your workplace.
Sources & Further Reading
Northern Ireland legislation: Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982, read with the Health and Safety (First-Aid) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017. Regulation 3(1), equipment and facilities; regulation 4, telling employees.
HSENI: First aid at work. Minimum provision, suggested first aid box contents and medicines.
HSE: First aid at work: Guidance on Regulations (L74), third edition, 2024 reissue. Paragraphs 35 to 46 and Appendix 2. HSENI follows this guidance.
HSE: Frequently asked questions on first aid. BS 8599, replacing contents, signs, tablets and medication, and defibrillators.
BSI: BS 8599-1:2019+A1:2026, Workplace first aid kits. Scope of the current standard.
Written by Northlight Training
Review sooner if Northern Ireland legislation, HSENI or HSE guidance, or BS 8599 changes. Check the supplier links every six months.