The legal position
Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, every employer in Great Britain must provide an adequate supply of wholesome drinking water for everyone at the workplace. The supply must be readily accessible at suitable places and clearly marked where necessary. Cups or a drinking fountain must also be provided unless the water is supplied in a way that people can drink from directly.
The Health and Safety Executive's guidance adds practical detail: the water should be free of charge, and for most workplaces the expectation is mains-fed drinking water rather than relying on staff bringing their own.
What "adequate" and "accessible" mean in practice
The regulations deliberately avoid fixed numbers, because a compliant setup looks different in a ten-person office and a factory floor of two hundred. In practice, assessors look at whether people can reach drinking water without an unreasonable trip, whether the supply keeps up with demand, and whether the water is genuinely wholesome, meaning safe and palatable.
Some environments raise the bar. In hot workplaces such as kitchens, foundries and factories with process heat, and for physically demanding roles including construction, HSE guidance expects employers to take dehydration seriously as a health risk, not just a comfort issue. On construction sites, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 impose the same duty to provide drinking water in their own right.
Does a water cooler satisfy the rules?
Yes, provided it is maintained. A plumbed-in cooler or filtered tap fed from the mains, with filters changed on schedule and the unit sanitised regularly, comfortably meets the requirement for a wholesome, accessible supply. What undermines compliance is neglect: a cooler that has not been serviced, or bottles stored badly, can turn a compliant setup into a hygiene problem.
The simple route to compliance
The easiest way to stay on the right side of the regulations is a mains-fed system with scheduled professional servicing, placed where people actually work. That gives you an always-on supply, a paper trail of maintenance, and one less thing for your health and safety review to flag. We survey the site first, recommend sensible dispense points for your headcount and layout, and handle the servicing schedule from then on.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice. For the full requirements, see the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and the HSE's Approved Code of Practice.