night-worker-health-check

---
name: night-worker-health-check
description: Tracks who on the rota actually meets the legal definition of a night worker, and whether each one has been offered the free health assessment the Working Time Regulations 1998 require before they started and at regular intervals since, because the duty is tied to a specific definition most managers apply by instinct rather than by the hours actually worked. It checks the assessment was offered, not just scheduled, and that a refusal was recorded rather than silently dropped. Use when you roster anyone onto a regular late or early shift, and before you assume "they only do a couple of lates" puts someone outside the rule.
---

# Who is legally a night worker, and whether they have had the health check they are owed

You give this each worker's rota pattern. You get back who actually meets the night worker definition, whether each one has had a health assessment offered before starting and at proper intervals since, and what happened with anyone who declined.

## What it does

1. **Apply the actual definition, not a rough guess.** Regulation 2(1) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 defines "night time" as a period "the duration of which is not less than seven hours" and "which includes the period between midnight and 5 a.m.", defaulting to "the period between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m." where no agreement sets a different window. A "night worker" is then someone "who, as a normal course, works at least three hours of his daily working time during night time." A kitchen porter who regularly finishes at 1am, working from 9pm, is inside this definition even if nobody has ever called them a night worker, because three hours of an 11pm-to-6am window is a low bar to cross.
2. **Offer the free assessment before the pattern starts, not after someone complains of being tired.** GOV.UK states: "Employers must offer workers a free health assessment before they become a night worker." The offer has to happen before the regular pattern begins, which means the trigger is the rota decision, not the first bad night.
3. **Keep offering it at proper intervals, not once and forgotten.** Regulation 7(1) requires the employer to ensure each night worker has "the opportunity of a free health assessment at regular intervals" appropriate to their circumstances, and GOV.UK confirms how often later ones are due depends "on the results of the assessment for each worker." A single assessment on day one with nothing scheduled since is not meeting a duty that is explicitly ongoing.
4. **Record a decline properly, because it is not the same as never having offered it.** GOV.UK notes workers "do not have to accept" the assessment. The duty is to offer it; a worker's right to decline does not remove the employer's duty to make the offer and to be able to show, later, that it was made.
5. **Act on a result that links health problems to night work.** Where that link is found, GOV.UK is direct: "The employer must find them other suitable work, where possible." This is not a recommendation to think about; it is the stated consequence of a confirmed result, and the rota needs to reflect any move that followed.

## Then it checks

1. Every worker on the rota is checked against the night worker definition using their actual shift hours, not their job title.
2. Every confirmed night worker has a recorded offer of a health assessment made before their night pattern began.
3. Every confirmed night worker has a recorded assessment interval since the first one, or a recorded reason none has been offered since.
4. Any decline is recorded with the date it was offered and the date it was declined, not left blank.
5. Any assessment result that identified a health problem linked to night work has a recorded response: suitable day work found, or a recorded reason it was not possible.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never exclude a worker from the night worker definition because their shift is "only occasional"; the test is whether night work is a normal course of their pattern, not how it is described informally.
- Never record an assessment as declined without a date and without confirming the offer itself happened first.
- Never leave a confirmed linked health result unresolved in the record; it must show either the move to suitable work or the stated reason none was possible.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own rota and occupational health records, and for their adviser to check any case where a transfer to day work has not been possible. It applies the Working Time Regulations 1998 to the rota supplied; it is not legal advice and it is not confirmation that every assessment duty has been met.

## Built from
- The Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 2, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/2, SI 1998/1833, read 3 November 2026: the definitions of night time and night worker, behind step 1.
- The Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 7, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/7, SI 1998/1833, read 3 November 2026: the duty to offer a health assessment before night work starts and at regular intervals, behind steps 2 and 3.
- GOV.UK, "Night working hours: Health assessments", https://www.gov.uk/night-working-hours/health-assessments, published by the Department for Business and Trade, no revision date shown on the page, read 3 November 2026: the plain-English statement of the offer, the refusal position, the interval depending on results, and the duty to move a worker to suitable day work where a link is confirmed, behind steps 2, 4 and 5.

# night-worker-health-check

## You are given
The rota for each worker, with actual shift start and end times for a representative period. Any relevant or workforce agreement that sets a different night-time window than the default 11pm to 6am, if one exists. Each worker's health assessment history: date offered, date completed or declined, and the result if completed, stated as `no link to night work found`, `link to night work found`, or `not yet assessed`. Any record of a worker being moved to day work following a confirmed link.

## Produce
Write into a `./night-worker-health-check-output/` folder:

1. `night-worker-status.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `shift_pattern_summary`, `hours_within_night_window_per_shift`, `normal_course_confirmed`, `night_window_used`, `night_worker_verdict`. `night_window_used` is `11pm to 6am default` or the agreed alternative. `normal_course_confirmed` is `yes` or `no`, based on whether the pattern is regular rather than a one-off. `night_worker_verdict` is `night worker` or `not a night worker`.
2. `assessment-offer-log.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `date_became_night_worker_or_started`, `date_assessment_offered`, `offered_before_start`, `response`, `response_date`. `offered_before_start` is `yes`, `no`, or `cannot confirm`. `response` is `completed`, `declined`, or `no response recorded`.
3. `assessment-interval-log.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `assessment_number`, `assessment_date`, `result`, `days_since_previous_assessment`, `verdict`. `verdict` is `pass` or `no further assessment offered since first one`.
4. `linked-result-action.csv` with columns: `worker_name`, `assessment_date`, `result`, `action_taken`, `action_date`. `action_taken` is `moved to suitable day work`, `no suitable work available, reason recorded`, or `no action recorded`.
5. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: every worker marked `night worker` with no `completed` or `declined` row in `assessment-offer-log.csv`; every `offered_before_start` of `no` or `cannot confirm`; every `no further assessment offered since first one` row; and every `linked-result-action.csv` row where `action_taken` is `no action recorded`, listed first as the most serious.

## Rules
- Codex counts, matches and checks. It never decides whether a result constitutes a confirmed link to night work, and it never decides what suitable day work would look like; it records what was supplied and flags what is missing.
- `hours_within_night_window_per_shift` and `normal_course_confirmed` are calculated from the supplied rota pattern, never assumed from a job title or a manager's description of the role.
- A worker is marked `night worker` only where the supplied hours and pattern meet the regulation 2(1) definition; a worker who occasionally covers a late shift but does not normally work three or more hours in the night window is marked `not a night worker` and excluded from the remaining checks, with the reason shown.
- Never mark `linked-result-action.csv` as resolved without either a recorded move to day work or a recorded reason none was possible.
- Use British English and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own rota and occupational health records, and for their adviser to check any case where a transfer to day work has not been possible. It applies the Working Time Regulations 1998 to the rota supplied and is not confirmation that every assessment duty has been met.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The number of workers confirmed as night workers and the window used. Every worker with no recorded offer or no recorded response. Every worker with no second assessment logged since the first. Every linked result with no recorded action, named first. The `gaps.md` item count.