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Legionella Awareness eLearning
Online legionella awareness training covering where the bacteria multiply, which systems create the aerosols that spread them, and the controls that keep water systems safe.
Who it is for
Who this legionella awareness course is for
Legionnaires' disease is caught by breathing in contaminated water droplets, not by drinking water. That makes cooling towers, showers, spa pools and any little-used outlet a potential source: in ordinary buildings, not just industrial ones.
- Facilities, estates and maintenance teams
- Landlords and property managers
- Care home, hotel and leisure staff
- Plumbers and building services engineers
- Responsible persons for water safety
- Anyone with duties under a water safety plan
Course content
What the legionella awareness course covers
Six short modules covering the bacteria, the systems that harbour them, and the routine controls that prevent an outbreak.
Legionella and Legionnaires' disease
The bacteria, the illness, and who is most at risk from it.
How people are exposed
Aerosols, not drinking water, and the systems that generate them.
Where legionella multiplies
Temperature range, stagnation, biofilm, scale and materials.
Systems at risk
Hot and cold water services, cooling towers, spa pools, showers and little-used outlets.
Control measures
Temperature control, flushing regimes, cleaning, disinfection and monitoring.
Roles, records and review
The responsible person, the written scheme, records and when to review.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do afterwards
- Explain how Legionnaires' disease is contracted
- Identify the systems in a building that could harbour legionella
- Recognise the conditions that let the bacteria multiply
- Carry out routine controls such as flushing and temperature checks
- Explain the role of the responsible person and the written scheme
- Keep the records a water safety plan requires
Your legal duty
The law behind legionella awareness training
Legionella control sits under general health and safety law rather than a regulation of its own. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places duties on employers and those in control of premises, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 apply because legionella is a biological agent.
HSE publishes an Approved Code of Practice and guidance on legionella control. An Approved Code of Practice has special legal status: if you are prosecuted and did not follow it, you have to show you complied with the law in some other way. Your written scheme should follow the current version.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 - duties on employers and those in control of premises
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 - legionella as a biological agent
- HSE Approved Code of Practice and guidance on legionella control
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 - risk assessment
Practicalities
How the course works
For employers
Legionella Awareness training for a team
Legionella control usually depends on routine tasks done by maintenance staff. Training them, not only the responsible person, is what makes the scheme real.
- One invoice instead of a card payment per person
- Licences allocated as people join, so induction is covered
- Completion and expiry reporting for your records
- Renewal reminders before certificates lapse
- Bespoke versions built around your own procedures
Your own written scheme, outlets and monitoring records can be built into the course. Ask about a bespoke version →
Legionella Awareness eLearning: common questions
No. It is contracted by inhaling contaminated aerosols: droplets from showers, taps, cooling towers or spa pools. The course covers which systems generate them.
No regulation is named after it. The duties come from the 1974 Act and from COSHH, with HSE's Approved Code of Practice setting out what compliance looks like in practice.
Guidance with special legal status. If you did not follow it and are prosecuted, you have to show you complied with the law another way. That makes it the practical benchmark.
No. This is awareness training. A responsible person needs training proportionate to the duties they carry and a proper understanding of your written scheme.
About 30 minutes, with no time limit: start it, pause it, and come back whenever suits. The certificate is issued the moment you finish.
Yes. It runs in a browser on any modern phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.
Yes. Open a business account and we invoice you for the licences, which you allocate as people need them, with completion reporting included.
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