Do Businesses Have To Provide Toilets For Customers
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- 11-03-2022
Do Businesses Have To Provide Toilets For Customers? We look at the responsibilities of a business. Find out more about customer toilets.
Do Businesses Have To Provide Toilets For Customers?
Size And Type Of Business:
The requirements for providing facilities usually depends on the business's customer capacity. There is also a minimum number of toilet facilities that a business must provide based on the number of this customer capacity. An example would be toilet facilities would be limited to at least one for every 40 customers.
A business that provides their customers with a public-facing space, has a requirement for them to provide a public bathroom facility. The circumstances are more likely to change if the business serves food to customers.
If there is a business located in an area such as a shopping plaza, shopping mall or a public space that already provide public toilets, they may be exempt from being demanded to implement the facilities themselves.
If a business cannot provide customers with separate toilets for men and women, they must provide facilities that are separate lockable rooms.
Exceptions For Medical Reasons:
Some businesses may have a legal obligation to offer their staff toilets to customers in need due to medical reasons. However, they may refuse this if they believe it has a risk of injury for the customer or if it would put the place of business at some sort of risk.
Various diseases that might be considered eligible for this include: Crohn's disease, Ulcerative colitis, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and other types of inflammatory bowel diseases.
There are many conditions to meet the requirements for allowing a customer to use staff bathrooms. One of these conditions can be that a public toilet is not in the immediate vicinity or not readily available for the customer to use.
This may be a common occurrence as according to statistics by The British Toilet Association, the number of these public facilities have decreased by a whopping 40% in the past decade.
Cafes And Restaurants
Employees must always have access to toilet facilities by law. If you are the owner of a cafe or any other business for that fact, customers may require (by law) toilet facilities to cater to their needs.
In most cases, a business doesn't have to provide its customers with toilets, but only if they have less than ten seats and people are eating and drinking on the premises.
In some cases, a business may have to provide customers with toilet and washing facilities if there are less than ten seats and people are not eating and drinking on the premises.
Even with the requirements stated prior, cafes that hold a license to serve alcohol will have to provide toilets. With that said, staff must have access to toilets regardless.
Licensed And Unlicensed Premises
If a business has the ability to sell alcohol, the laws and regulations make it so that they have to provide toilet and washroom facilities to its customers.
These facilities must provide customers with toilet paper, cleaning agents such as soap and a way of drying, commonly in the form of paper towels or electric dryers, as well as hot and cold running water, to wash hands.
The toilets on the premises must be separate for male and female customers. This will be the same case with male and female employees.
Opening Hours And Times Of Service
Legal obligations may change for each business depending on the time they operate. It doesn't matter if they're open for 6 hours a day or even 12, it's all about the time of day.
If the place of business is operating after 11 PM, they must provide customers with the appropriate facilities.
When Are Toilets Obligatory?
When customers are eating and drinking on the premises, and there are ten or more seats, a business will have to provide toilets to the customers.
There are some cases where a business may have to install toilets even if they don't meet these requirements.
It usually depends on the type of services that are provided by a business when it comes to toilet and washing facilities on the premises.
Typically these rules usually apply in places like a coffee shop or bakery.
How Many Toilets Do I Require On My Food Premises?
If you own a restaurant, then the number can vary depending on whether your establishment has urinals or not. If your place of business does contain urinals, you will have to provide two for every 50 male customers. That would change to one toilet per 50 males if your business contains no urinals.
It is different with female customers, however. You would need to provide two toilets per 30 female customers, with an additional toilet for every 30 customers up to 120; after the number reaches 120, an additional toilet should be added for every 60 extra customers.
In the case of owning a pub without urinals, men's toilet facilities should contain two toilets per 40 male customers. Female customers should be provided with one toilet for every 25 customers. Adding one additional toilet every 25 female customers up to 200. After that, it's another toilet for every 35.
Are you looking for commercial toilet and bathroom installations in Glasgow and the surrounding areas? Follow the link below to find out more about Commercial Bathroom Fitting in Glasgow.
Commercial Bathroom Design And Installation Scotland