One locker, or one lockable compartment, for every worker who changes clothing on site, and two compartments per person when the work clothing gets dirty, wet or contaminated. The law in Great Britain sets no number per employee: the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require suitable and sufficient accommodation for the clothing people take off, with suitable security for it wherever changing facilities are needed. This guide does the count with shifts and turns it into metres of wall.
Where does the number come from?
From two regulations. Regulation 24 requires suitable and sufficient changing facilities wherever a person has to wear special clothing for work and cannot, for reasons of health or propriety, be expected to change in another room; they must be easily accessible, of sufficient capacity and provided with seating. Regulation 23 covers the storage: the accommodation is not suitable unless, where changing facilities are required, it provides suitable security for the clothing not worn during working hours, and it keeps work clothing and other clothing apart where that is necessary to avoid risks to health or damage to the clothing.
Neither regulation gives a figure per employee, and neither sizes anything by how many people use the room at the same time. So the count below is our reading: suitable security for each person's clothing comes down, in practice, to one lockable compartment for each person who changes. Which workplaces need a changing room, and what else the Regulations ask for, is in lockers in the staff changing room: what the Workplace Regulations 1992 require.
Who do you count?
Only the people who change clothing on site. The sales rep who drives in and out does not need a changing room locker; the operative who arrives in street clothes and puts on overalls does. In a unit with 60 people of whom 8 work in the office, the changing room needs 52 lockers.
Holidays and sick leave do not reduce the count, because that person comes back and their locker is still in use. And if contractors or agency staff change in your changing room, they need a locker too.
What about shifts?
It depends on whether they meet in the changing room. If shifts overlap at handover, even for ten minutes, the people arriving change while the people leaving still have their clothes inside, so each person needs their own: add up every shift. The Regulations say nothing about shifts, so this is our reading: if shifts never cross and nobody leaves clothing inside when they go, you can size for the largest shift and allocate each locker by shift.
An example with three shifts: 30 people on earlies, 25 on lates and 15 on nights. If the handovers overlap, or the overalls stay in the changing room from one day to the next, you need 70 compartments, which take 11.32 m of wall with 6-door and 4-door lockers. If the shifts never cross and everyone takes their things home, 30 are enough, in 4.85 m. The second count holds only while nobody leaves clothing inside: the day someone does, that locker stops belonging to one person. If in doubt, one per person.
How many lockers and how many metres of wall?
Using the real measurements of the range: the 2, 4, 6 and 12-door lockers are 177 cm high and 40 cm deep, 65 cm wide for the 2-door and 4-door models and 97 cm for the 6-door and 12-door.
| People who need a locker | What they store | Compartments | Lockers | Metres of wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Rucksack and jacket | 10 | 1 six-door and 1 four-door | 1.62 m |
| 25 | Rucksack and jacket | 26 | 3 six-door and 2 four-door | 4.21 m |
| 50 | Rucksack and jacket | 50 | 7 six-door and 2 four-door | 8.09 m |
| 50 | Overalls or coat, full length | 50 | 25 two-door | 16.25 m |
| 100 | Rucksack and jacket | 100 | 16 six-door and 1 four-door | 16.17 m |
| 40 with dirty work clothing | Street and work clothing kept apart | 80 | 12 six-door and 2 four-door | 12.94 m |
The 4-door and 6-door lockers have the same compartment, 82 × 28 cm, and fit six people per metre of wall, so mixing them hits the number without wasting wall. The 2-door gives a full-height compartment, 28 cm wide, where overalls or a coat fit without folding, and uses twice the wall per person. What fits in each is in 2, 4, 6 or 12-door locker: which to choose. If your numbers are different, work out how many lockers your workforce needs: the calculator gives you the locker type, the number of lockers and the metres of wall.
When are two compartments per person needed?
When regulation 23 asks for separate accommodation for clothing worn at work and for other clothing, which it does where that is necessary to avoid risks to health or damage to the clothing. That covers paint shops, chemicals, waste handling, abattoirs and food production. There the number of compartments doubles.
With 40 operatives that makes 80 compartments of 82 × 28 cm: 12 six-door lockers and 2 four-door, in 12.94 m of wall. If the overalls also have to be stored full length, each operative takes a whole 2-door locker, one door for street clothes and one for work clothes: 40 lockers and 26 m. That is twice the wall for the same headcount.
And if nobody in your business changes clothing?
Then you do not need changing facilities, but regulation 23 still applies on its own: there must be suitable and sufficient accommodation for the clothing people do not wear while working. Suitable security is only a condition where regulation 24 requires changing facilities, so that accommodation does not have to lock.
In an office, a locker with a key gets bought for another reason: what people leave is the rucksack, the laptop and the wallet, and with hot desking, everything belonging to someone without a fixed desk. That is a company decision rather than a legal duty, and it is counted differently. If everyone keeps their own, one per person. If lockers are handed out by the day, count the people in the office on the busiest day.
Seating counts in the same sum
Regulation 24 requires changing facilities to be provided with seating but gives no number. The German rules do: ASR A4.1, point 7.4(1), asks for at least one seat for every four employees using the changing room at the same time. It does not apply in the UK, but it gives a benchmark. If the 25 people in the table all change at once, that is seven seats. How many benches that means and where they go is in changing room benches: what the regulations require and which size to buy.
How to count your changing room in five minutes
- People who change clothing on site, shift by shift, including contractors or agency staff who use your changing room.
- Do the shifts cross at handover, or does anyone leave clothing inside between shifts? Then add them all up. If not, the largest shift sets the number.
- What gets stored? Overalls or a coat kept full length need a full-height compartment; a rucksack and a jacket, 82 × 28 cm.
- Does the work clothing get dirty, wet or contaminated? Two compartments per person.
- Metres of free wall, and one seat for every four people changing at the same time.
With those five answers, ask for a quote for your changing room. We usually reply the same working day with the price, including delivery to your postcode, and the invoice is made out to your company. From 15 units there is a 5% volume discount, and from 30 units, 10%.
Sources: Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/3004), regulations 23 and 24, as published on legislation.gov.uk. German benchmark: ASR A4.1 "Sanitärräume", point 7.4(1), published by BAuA. This guide is for orientation only and is not legal advice: before an inspection or on a specific question, check the current text and ask your health and safety adviser.