Risk Prevention Plan (Plan de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales)

What Is Prevención de Riesgos Laborales?

Prevención de Riesgos Laborales (PRL) is Spain’s occupational health and safety (OHS) framework, governed by the Ley 31/1995 de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales and its implementing regulations. It requires every employer — from a sole trader with one employee to a multinational corporation — to identify workplace risks, implement prevention measures, train workers, and document everything in a Plan de Prevención.

PRL is equivalent to the UK’s Health and Safety at Work requirements, Germany’s Arbeitschutzgesetz, or the US OSHA framework — but Spain’s system is notable for its emphasis on written documentation and the involvement of specialised external prevention services for most SMEs.

The Plan de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales

Every employer must prepare and maintain a Plan de Prevención — a written document that:

1. Describes the company: structure, activities, number of workers, locations, processes, and equipment.
2. Identifies the applicable legal and preventive requirements for the sector and activities.
3. Documents the prevention modality chosen (see below).
4. Integrates prevention into the company’s management system: who is responsible for PRL at each level.
5. References the risk assessment (Evaluación de Riesgos) and planning documents.

The plan is not filed with any authority by default — but it must be made available to the Labour Inspectorate (Inspección de Trabajo y Seguridad Social — ITSS) immediately upon request during an inspection.

The Evaluación de Riesgos (Risk Assessment)

Alongside the Plan de Prevención, the employer must carry out a risk assessment of all workplace activities, identifying potential hazards, evaluating the level of risk, and specifying the preventive measures to eliminate or reduce each risk. The assessment must be updated whenever working conditions change significantly or a work accident occurs.

Prevention Modalities: How to Comply

Employers choose one of four ways to organise their prevention activity:

Most Spanish SMEs contract an SPA — an accredited external prevention service that conducts the risk assessment, provides occupational medicine services (medical check-ups), manages emergency plans, and provides basic PRL training.

Key Ongoing Obligations

• Employee medical check-ups (vigilancia de la salud): Annual or periodic occupational health screenings, with employee consent (or mandatory for hazardous roles).
• Employee training: Workers must receive PRL training specific to their role and its risks, at the time of hiring and whenever their role changes.
• Emergency plan (Plan de Emergencia): Required for all companies; must include fire safety, evacuation procedures, and first aid.
• Work accident reporting: Serious accidents must be reported to the ITSS and Social Security within 24 hours using the electronic DELTA system.
• Safety committee (Comité de Seguridad y Salud): Mandatory in companies with 50+ workers.

Labour Inspectorate Enforcement

The ITSS conducts unannounced inspections focused on PRL compliance. Infringement penalties:

In addition, if a work accident occurs at a company that has not fulfilled its PRL obligations, the employer may face criminal liability under Articles 316–317 of the Spanish Penal Code, as well as a civil surcharge of 30–50% on Social Security benefits paid to the injured worker.

How BMC Can Help

We coordinate the complete PRL compliance cycle: selection and coordination of the external prevention service, ensuring the Plan de Prevención and risk assessment are complete and current, managing employee training records, and preparing documentation for ITSS inspections. We also advise on PRL obligations in M&A transactions and workplace accident management.