The Health and Safety Executive

This page provides you information - and links to further information - about the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and, in particular, its 'enforcement functions'.

The HSE can be described as the operational arm of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and is responsible for enforcement of health and safety law in most of Britain's most hazardous workplaces.

The HSE is a distinct organisation from the HSC.

The HSE Board
The HSE (like the HSC) is established by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. In 'constitutional' terms [section 10(5) of the 1974 Act], the Executive itself is composed of three people. One of these is the Director General who is appointed by the Commission (with the approval of the Government). The other two are appointed in the same way after consultation with the Director General. These three people are:

The HSE website allows you to access these document that relate to Board meetings since October 2000. If you would like to access them click here.

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The Role of the HSE and its Relationship with the Government and the HSC
the 1974 Act, in particular the Nuclear Installations Acts. It is also part of a statutory competent authority, for example for the assessment of toxic chemicals, jointly with the Environment Agency, as part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) under the Notification of New Substances Regulations 1993. In these matters it acts on its own volition.

In order to carry out its responsibilities, particularly in relation to enforcement and policy proposals, the Executive may agree Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with other public bodies. These typically set out liaison arrangements or delineate areas of coverage where responsibilities overlap.

The Executive and staff of HSE are civil servants and subject to the provisions of the Civil Service Code which sets out the role and duties of civil servants and the standards of conduct and propriety expected of them. If you would like to download the full document, please click here (PDF).

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Enforcement Functions of the HSE
The principle responsibility of the HSE is "to make adequate arrangements for the enforcement of" health and safety law in relation to certain categories of premises in England, Scotland and Wales. It is responsible for the following premises:

• factories;
• building sites;
• mines;
• farms;
• fairgrounds;
• quarries;
• railways;
• chemical plants;
• offshore and nuclear installations;
• schools, universities etc
• hospitals
• Local, county and parish councils
• Police and Fire Authorities
• Crown bodies

Health and safety law in relation to other premises (shops, hotels, restaurants, leisure and sports centres, places of worship, some warehouses, and most offices) is enforced by local authorities.

The HSE has no responsibility for the enforcement of health and safety law on boats and ships when they are out at sea. This is the responsibility of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)

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HSE Inspectors
HSE inspectors work in different divisions within the HSE.

• Field Operations Division (FOD) - this is the biggest division within the HSE as is involved with enforcement in manufacturing, construction, railways etc
• Hazardous Installations Division - this is responsible for enforcement in relation to chemicals and mining.
• Nuclear Inspectorate - concerned with the nuclear industry

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HSE Inspectors and the Law
The HSE employs inspectors to enforce health and safety law. This section contains a summary of the way the law works. If however you would like a more detailed explanation, please click here.

The law imposes certain duties upon:

• employers, manufacturers, suppliers, and occupiers (which in most cases these will be 'companies' or organisations rather than individuals);
• employees
  It also imposes certain limited duties upon directors and managers
  

• impose an improvement notice - this requires that the organisation/individual makes specified improvements within a certain period of time;
  
  
• impose a prohibition notice - this requires that the organisation or individual stops a particular activity because of the dangers that it poses.
  
  
• Prosecute the company, organisation or individual.

Alternatively, an inspector need not use any of its formal powers but instead simply provide oral or written advice. The HSE has recently published a new Enforcement Management Model to assist inspectors in determining what action to take. This needs to be read alongside HSC’s new ‘Enforcement Policy Statement’

It should be noted that an organisation or individual can appeal to an Employment Tribunal against either an improvement or a prohibition notice within 21 days of the notice having been issued.

In determining which of these formal or informal powers to use, HSE inspectors have to follow the HSC Enforcement Policy Statement. If you would like to find out more about this document, please click here

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HSE Inspections and Investigations
HSE inspectors identify breaches in the law through either (a) preventative inspections and (b) investigations:

Preventative inspections are in most cases unannounced visits to premises. Premises are selected for inspection through a system of hazard rating.

Investigations can take place into the following incidents

• a death;
• a major injury;
• an 'over three day injury';
• a disease;
• a dangerous occurrence;
• certain kinds of gas incidents;

• all deaths 'arising out of or in connection with work activities' unless they involve suicides or deaths from natural causes;
• all reports of cases of industrial disease;
• certain specified 'major injuries'.
• incidents that are "likely to give rise to serious public concern";
• incidents where there is "likely to have been a serious breach of health and safety law,

To see the guidelines in full, click here

The HSE are planning to revise this criteria and are piloting a new set of criteria in the North West which will mean fewer injuries will be investigated. To read about this click here.

The HSE has also recently set out new guidelines on when inspectors should investigate work-related road traffic incidents.. This resulted from a judicial review where the HSE had refused to investigate the death of Omar Akhter who was killed when the raised forks of a fork-lift truck smashed through the window of Omar's car as he was driving home.

The guidelines: 'Work-related Road Traffic Incidents: an explanation of circumstances where HSE may have a role to play':

"At the Judicial Review, on consideration of all the available information, HSE recognised that its decision not to investigate had been incorrect and volunteered to investigate the incident retrospectively.. Because HSE volunteered to investigate the incident no formal judgment was given by the court .. However the judicial review prompted the Deputy Director General to commit to clarifying the inspector HSC/E's policy in this area .."

To see a summary of which incident the HSE might or should investigate, click here.

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HSE Powers of Investigation
Section 20 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 provides inspectors wide powers to inspect premises and investigate health and safety offences. These are:

• To enter any premises at any reasonable time (or, at any time, in a situation which in the inspector's opinion is dangerous) to carry out his functions;
• to undertake any examination or investigation as may be necessary in the circumstances
• to direct that the premises are left undisturbed for so long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose of any examination or investigation
• to take any measurements, photographs and recordings as is considered necessary
• to take samples of any articles or substances in the premises;
• to dismantle or test any article or substance which appears to the inspector to have caused or is likely to cause danger to health or safety;
• to remove any article or substance for as long as is necessary
• to require any person whom the inspector has reasonable cause to believe to be able to give any information relevant to the any examination or investigation to answer such question that the inspector thinks fit and to sign a declaration of the truth of the answers. It should be noted that according to Section 20(7) no answer given in any statement by virtue of the powers of this section "shall be admissible in evidence against that person or the husband or wife of that person in any proceedings."
  
• to take copies of any documents which by law are required to be kept and any other books or documents which it is necessary for the inspector to see for the purposes of any examination or investigation
• to require any person to afford the inspector such facilities and assistance with respect to any matters within that person's control

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Procedures for the Investigation of ‘Major Incidents’
In April 2001, the HSE established new quality management arrangements’ for responding to, and investigating, ‘major incidents'. A Major incident is defined as:

'a significant event which demands a response beyond the routine. Significance is determined by the severity of the incident, the degree of public concern and the nature and extent of HSE's previous involvement with the duty holder(s); though the nature of previous involvement would not alone trigger a major incident investigation.'

The HSE says that this document "is one of a series of documents which establish procedures designed to meet HSE’s Enforcement Statement/Quality Statement for Continuing Aim 2 - To secure compliance with the law in line with the principles of proportionality, consistency, transparency and targeting on a risk-related basis."

To download this document, click here (PDF)

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this new policy is that the new procedures requires that an investigation into HSE’s role prior to the ‘major incident' taking place. These investigations are called ‘Prior Role Inquiries’.
The policy says that:

"The nature and extent of the Prior Role Inquiry depends upon the seriousness and complexity of the incident. In more serious or complex incidents it will be necessary to form an inquiry team. This team is composed of people from outside the home Directorate with the necessary competence to undertake the field work for the inquiry under the direction of an inquiry team leader at Band 1 level. In less complex incidents it may be appropriate for the Band 1 to undertake the inquiry alone."

To find out more about the Prior Inquiry Reports, see immediately below.

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HSE’s ‘Prior Role Inquiry’ Report
To find out about:
• What are Prior Role Inquiries
• What is involved in the investigation by the HSE
• What the report should document
• The reports themselves
Click Here

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The New Enforcement Policy Statement
After a long period of consultation, the Health and Safety Commission published a new Enforcement Policy Statement in January 2002. The Statement sets out how inspectors, both from the Health and Safety Executive and Local Authorities, should use their powers - in particular those relating to the prosecution of organisations and individuals - to enforce health and safety law.

• To download the new EPS, click here (PDF document).
• To see how the new statement differs from the previous statement and to see CCA's comments on the new statement click here. and look at the analysis section on the newsletter.
• To see documents relating to the consultation process, click here

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The New ‘Enforcement Management Model’
In May 2002, the HSE launched its ‘Enforcement Management Model’ (EMM) which aims to assist inspectors in deciding the appropriate enforcement action (i.e. oral or written advice, imposition of notices or prosecution) to be taken in particular cases. It aims to ensure that inspectors make decisions that are in line with the Health and Safety Commission’s (HSC) revised Enforcement Policy Statement and to ensure that there is greater consistency in the actions taken by inspectors faced with similar sets of circumstances.

To see a summary of the EMM, click here

To download a copy of the EMM, click here

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HSE and Crown Bodies
To read about the application of health and safety law to Crown Bodies and the way HSE treats them, click here

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HSE and Resources
The HSE receives a sum of money from the Health and Safety Commission. In addition the HSE receives income through charging companies and organisations fees for certain activities.

In the year 2000/2001, the Commission gave the HSE £189 million The HSE also raised £52 million last year through charging resulting in a total budget of £241 million

Last year the HSE spent a total of £164 million on enforcement activities. £133 million of this came from the Government's 'grant in aid' and 31 million from HSE's own charging activities.

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Parliamentary Select Committee's Inquiry (1999)

In 1999, the Environment, Transport, and Regional Affairs Select Committee held an inquiry into the work of the Health and Safety Executive. The CCA gave written evidence and was one of only five non-Governmental organisations to give oral evidence.

To access documents relating to this enquiry, click here

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Information and the HSE
The HSE's Board has published a statement on openness. You can see this by clicking here.

If you would like to see what information the HSE is willing to provide people and how best to obtain it, click here

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Complaining about the HSE
If you have a complaint about any decision or conduct of the HSE, you should either:

• write to Timothy Walker, the Director General of the HSE at: HSE, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 3HS
  
  
• e-mail Timothy Walker

Click Here for for our dedicated page on complaints about the HSE

The CCA may be able to assist you in making your complaint.

Contact us

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HSE and Coroners’ Inquests
The HSE has an important role to play in inquests concerning work-related deaths.

Click here to read about inquests into work-related deaths
Click here to download HSE’s response to the Coroner Review Team

HSE Board

"Framework of Accountabilities"
To Download the full document, click here

Annex 1-4 This contains

1. Responsibilities of Secretaries of State in Relation to work of HSC/E
2. Agency Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding
3. Advisory Committees to the Health and Safety Commission.
4. Letter from HSC to HSE giving formal direction Under Section 11(4) of 1974 Act

Annex 5: Financial Memorandum

(a) is contravening one or more of the relevant statutory provisions; or
(b) has contravened one or more of those provisions in circumstances that make it likely that the contravention will continue to be repeated,

• the inspector is of the said opinion
• specify the reason why the inspector is of that opinion
• where the inspector is of the opinion that there has been a contravention of any statutory provision, specify the provision(s) and reasons for the opinion
• direct that "the activities to which the notice relates shall not be carried on by or under the control of the person on whom the notice is served" unless the matters specified in the notice any contraventions have been remedied.
  

• an inspector wrongly interpreted the law
• the inspector exceeded his powers
• though there is a breach of the law, the proposed solution is not practicable, or reasonably practicable'.
• although there is a breach of the law it is so insignificant that the notice should be canceled

• causes:
• whether action has been taken or needs to be taken to prevent a recurrence and to secure compliance with the law;
• lessons to be learnt and to influence the law and guidance;
• what response is appropriate to a breach of law.
  
  To maintain a proportionate response, most resources available for investigation or incidents will be devoted to the more serious circumstances. HSC's Strategic Plan recognises that it is neither possible nor necessary for the purposes of the Act to investigate all issues of non-compliance with the law which are uncovered in the course of preventative inspection, or in the investigation of reported events.
  

• the severity and scale of potential or actual harm
• the seriousness of any potential breach of law;
• knowledge of the duty holder's past health and safety performance;
• the enforcement priorities;
• the practicalities of achieving results;
• the wider relevance of the event including serious public concern
  

To see more information on HSC's Enforcement Policy Statement, click here

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