How Long Is an Emergency First Aid at Work Certificate Valid in the UK?
Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) certificate
Three years, the same as the full FAW certificate. Retake the one-day course before it expires.
"Certificates for the purposes of first aid at work last for three years. Before their certificates expire, first-aiders will need to undertake a requalification course as appropriate, to obtain another three-year certificate."
Renewal, refreshers, and what a lapse means
- Who it applies to
- First aiders in lower-risk workplaces where the needs assessment calls for emergency first aid cover rather than the full FAW qualification.
- How it is renewed
- EFAW is a one-day course, and requalification is normally the same one-day course taken again before the certificate expires, which issues a new three-year certificate.
- Refresher training in between
- HSE strongly recommends annual refresher training for first aiders. For EFAW holders this is often a short half-day update; it keeps skills current but does not extend the three years.
- When it lapses
- After expiry the holder is no longer considered competent to act as a workplace first aider, so they stop counting towards the provision your needs assessment calls for.
Renewal reminders for your calendar
Enter the date and this page builds a calendar file with the expiry date and reminders 90 days and 30 days before it. Nothing leaves your browser; the file is generated here and opens in Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.
What this does to the roster
EFAW is the certificate small teams hold, because it is a day rather than three, and small teams are where a single lapse does the most damage. A team of eight with one EFAW holder is already short on about 33 working days a year on the presence arithmetic; with that one certificate lapsed it is short on all of them, and nothing about the day-to-day changes to show it. The one-day course is cheap to repeat. The cost is in remembering to.
Because requalification is the same one-day course, there is no excuse in the training calendar for letting it slip, but there is one in the roster: the day has to be found, and on a small team the holder is also the person who cannot be spared. The teams that keep EFAW current book the requalification when the certificate is issued, three years out, rather than when the reminder fires.
The three-year term is the same as FAW, and so is the rule on expiry: HSE says the holder is no longer considered competent after the date. Treat the EFAW date the way you treat a vehicle MOT, as a date the operation depends on rather than a line in a personnel file, and count holders by valid certificate when you work out how many the site needs.
How many holders does that take?
Validity says whether a certificate counts today. The next question is how many valid holders the operation needs so that the required number is actually on shift once leave, sickness and the occasional lapse are priced in.
One trained first aider in a team of 8 leaves the site uncovered on about 33 working days a year. A second takes that to 4.2.
How Many First Aiders Does a Team of 15 Need?Two first aiders in a team of 15 leave the site without one on about 4.2 working days a year. A third brings it to 0.5.
Common questions
- How long does an EFAW certificate last?
- Three years from issue, the same as the full First Aid at Work certificate, per HSE. Requalification before expiry issues another three-year certificate; for EFAW that is normally the one-day course taken again.
- Is EFAW enough, or do we need FAW?
- That is for your first-aid needs assessment, not the certificate rules. HSE expects lower-risk workplaces to be able to rely on EFAW-trained first aiders, and higher-risk ones to need FAW. The validity rule is the same for both.
- What if the holder misses the requalification date?
- The certificate lapses and, per HSE, the holder is no longer considered competent to act as a workplace first aider until they requalify. On a small team that usually means the site has no first aider at all until the next one-day course.
This page summarises the cited source as read on 2026-08-19. Rules change and needs assessments differ; check the source for your own case. Keeping each person's expiry date on the record that builds the rota is what the Skills tab in Soon is for.
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