The Health and Safety Executive, often referred to as the HSE, is an independent regulator that aims to prevent work-related death, injury and ill-health.
Click here to visit The Health and Safety Executive website.
The foundations of the organisation can be dated back to the 1800’s when the HM Factory Inspectorate, Mines Inspectorate and Quarry Inspectorates were formed.
But it was on 1 January 1975 that the Health and Safety Executive was officially established, led by its first Director General, John Lock.
The organisation came into being the year after the publication of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. (In Northern Ireland, these duties lie with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).)
The organisation acts in the public interest to reduce work-related death and serious injury across Great Britain’s workplaces. It is not the sole regulator, as in many cases local authorities are responsible for breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974.
Since 2014 when the Care Act came into force, the Care Quality Commission has been responsible for undertaking some of the investigatory/regulatory work currently been undertaken by the HSE or the local authorities, when an incident causing harm, injury or death occurs to a person who is receiving care and support.
Commentary from HSE officials is often featured in SHP from its in-court stories, where the regulator is responsible for bringing prosecutions against individuals and companies.
For the latest HSE news stories, including prosecutions, follow SHP’s In Court page here and see a summary of the most recent news stories below.
HSE data shows that a total of 135 workers died in work-related incidents in Great Britain in 2022/23, an increase of 12 from the previous year.
In statistical terms the number of fatalities has remained broadly level in recent years – the average annual number of workers killed at work over the five years 2017/18-2021/22 is 134.
Over the past 20 years there has been a long-term reduction in the number of workplace fatalities, demonstrating that Great Britain is one of the safest places to work in the world.
The figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) relate to workplace incidents. They do not include deaths arising from occupational exposure to disease, including COVID-19.
The construction and agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors continue to account for the greatest number of workers killed in fatal accidents each year.
Those three causes of death account for more than half of fatalities in 2022/23. Click here for more on annual workplace fatality figures.
Key figures for Great Britain (2022/23)
As a regulator, the HSE’s aim is to prevent workplace death, injury or ill health, through using a variety of methods to influence change and help people manage risks at work. These include:
They claim to work collaboratively with other regulators, agencies and government departments to ensure the most appropriate organisation intervenes. They do this by setting arrangements, where laws overlap, to:
They will not intervene if another regulator has specific responsibility for that area.
Local authorities are responsible for regulating health and safety in lower-risk workplaces, such as offices, shops and warehouses.
For more information, visit the HSE’s guide on who is the correct enforcing authority.
Under the Control of Major Hazards Regulations 2015 (COMAH), it also regulates major hazards by working jointly, as a competent authority, with:
Offshore major hazard industries (oil and gas) are regulated jointly by us and the Department for Environment and Climate Change.
It supports the work of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Office of Road and Rail Regulation and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
It also works closely with the Civil Aviation Authority and Maritime Coastguard Agency.
A complete list of all the regulators we have formal agreements with is available online.
Headquartered in Bootle, near Liverpool, the HSE headquarters address is: Redgrave Court, Merton Road, Bootle, Merseyside, L20 7HS.
There are also several other offices around the country. To find your nearest office or knowledge – centre see this page on the HSE website.
All incidents can be reported using an online form, but a telephone service remains for reporting fatal and major injuries only – call the HSE Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923 (opening hours Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5 pm).
Subscribe and tune in the The Safety Conversation Podcast to discover the latest issues facing the health and safety profession, and stay on-top of the developments affecting your role, from working at height, lone working and common workplace hazards, to safety culture, behaviours, occupational health and mental health and wellbeing.
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Tata Chemicals Europe Limited has been fined after a man died following an incident while erecting a scaffold tower in a chemical plant in Northwich.
Openreach Limited has been fined £1.34 million after an engineer died whilst trying to repair a telephone line.
A company based in Kent has been fined £30,000, and its director fined £5,000, after failing to ensure the safe removal of asbestos across two separate sites.
A family run and owned skip hire, waste and recycling business in Scotland has been fined £24,000 after a worker sustained serious injuries to his left hand and forearm on the blades of a machine.
Two companies have been sentenced after a worker fell from a scissor lift and fractured his skull, leaving him in an induced coma.
A wood recycling company has been fined after the long-term health of workers was put in danger due to excessive exposure to the dust their work created.
A West Yorkshire farmer has been fined after his cattle trampled a man to death and left his wife paralysed.
A motorsport engineering firm based in Kent has been fined after Britain’s workplace regulator identified numerous health and safety breaches.
A farming partnership in Surrey has been fined £36,000 after a man was seriously injured.
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Three individuals and a company have been sentenced after a mother-of-eight was catapulted from a fairground ride in Hillingdon, London.
A worker suffered burns to his face and body after the crowbar he was using came into contact with a live electrical conductor.
Three companies have been fined after a lift truck engineer was seriously injured while working at Pirelli Tyres’ factory in Carlisle.
A company in Manchester has been fined £20,000 after an employee fell through a roof and suffered serious injuries.
The director of a Croydon-based double glazing company has avoided an immediate spell behind bars following the death of a man.
A company director has been fined after workers were exposed to asbestos during the demolition of a hotel in Cornwall.
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A carpentry contractor has been fined after a 22-year-old man died after he was struck by construction equipment on a building site.
A Yorkshire metals recycling company has been fined £1.2m after a worker was injured after being struck by a wagon at a processing site.
A company that provides shipping services, cargo handling and storage has been fined after a worker severed part of his finger while at work.
A company and its director have been sentenced after workers were exposed to asbestos and its potential harmful effects.
A packaging manufacturer has been fined for safety breaches after a worker received severe hand injuries at a factory in Yorkshire.
A housing company based in Kent has been fined £528,000 after an employee repairing a fence post inadvertently struck an underground cable, suffering burns to his face.
A company that grows mushrooms has been fined after an employee’s leg became trapped in a machine and was later amputated.
An aviation company has been fined £160,000 after a man was crushed to death at London Heathrow Airport during the unloading of baggage containers from an aircraft.
George Gilbey, a self-employed electrician who appeared on Channel 4’s Gogglebox TV show, died after falling from height at work.
An Ipswich-based tobacco manufacturer has been fined £32,000 after failing to put measures in place to prevent access to the rotating blades of a ribbon blade mixer.
A manufacturing company in Hull has been fined after one of its employees was crushed to death at a factory.
A company in Kent has been fined £175,000 following the death of an employee.
A horticulture company has been fined £3,000 after a lorry driver suffered third degree burns on his body while making a delivery to a site in Essex.
A company director has been jailed for eight months after failing to protect workers from exposure to asbestos at a student development project in Winchester.
A solar panel installation company has been fined after a worker fell and sustained life-changing injuries.
A metal processing company has been fined £12,000 after an employee sustained life changing injuries at a premises in Oldbury, West Midlands.
An engineering and services company has been fined following the death of a worker.
A food manufacturing company on the Wirral has been fined £400,000 after one of its employees had to have her leg amputated.
A company in Hertfordshire has been fined after an employee was crushed to death.
Lothian Health Board has been fined £220,000 for safety breaches, following the death of two vulnerable patients.
A company has been fined after a worker sustained serious burns to their body.
A company that specialises in making pork pies has been fined £800,000 after two young workers lost fingers in incidents at two different Nottingham bakeries.
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A company and its director have been sentenced following the death of an employee.
A scrap metal recycling company in Essex has been fined £200,000 after an employee’s arm was severed when it became entangled in a catalytic converter sampling machine.
INEOS has been fined £400,000 after an employee was seriously injured while carrying out a routine task at its chemicals site in Grangemouth, Scotland.
A manufacturing company has been fined £120,000 after a worker was killed after becoming trapped between two heavy steel beams.
An unregistered plumber has received a suspended prison sentence after he carried out illegal gas work at a house in Peterborough.
A recycling company in Wales has been fined £300,000 after a man was killed by a shovel loader.
A care home operator has been fined £400,000 for safety breaches, following the death of a vulnerable resident at a care home in Scotland.
A woman and her friend had to climb up a tree to escape an attack by more than a dozen cows on a public right of way in North Yorkshire.
The new Building Safety Regulator is asking all those living in tall buildings in England to be aware of how new Building Safety laws affect them.
A recycling company in West Yorkshire has been fined £120,000 after batteries weighing at least 300kg fell onto an employee and severely injured him.
An engineering firm in Perth has been fined £10,000 after an employee lost two of his fingers.
A bedding manufacturer has been fined more than £250,000 after two of its employees were seriously injured during separate incidents at its site in Rochdale.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) aims to focus on the dangers of livestock as it relaunches its Your Farm, Your Future campaign this month.
A West Yorkshire cosmetic manufacturing company has been fined after a worker lost part of a finger while cleaning a machine.
A company has been fined £450,000 and the firm’s director has received a suspended prison sentence after a labourer was crushed to death at a construction site.
A company involved in fruit and vegetable production has been fined £320,000 after a man was killed at a site in Burscough.
A textiles company has been fined £60,000 after a man broke his arm when it was dragged into machinery at
This month, Beth Thompson (Associate) and Kirstie Imber (Associate) consider the successful convictions of Timmins Waste Services and its yard manager, Brian Timmins.
A Stockport-based stone worktop manufacturer has been fined £26,000 for repeatedly putting its workers at risk.
A North Yorkshire construction company has been fined after a worker was struck on the head and killed by a 16-ton excavator.
A company in Peterborough has been fined £67,000 after a young employee lost his life.
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A manufacturing company has been fined £15,000 after exposing its own workers to wood dust and failing to comply with two improvement notices.
A recycling company has been fined £2.15 million after an agency worker was killed by a loading shovel at its site in Hartlepool.
A company in York has been fined more than £16,000 after staff at a hospital were left with life-changing medical conditions after being exposed to ionised hydrogen peroxide.
A Hartlepool man has been handed a community order after he admitted removing asbestos from a school when he wasn’t licenced to do so.
A Kent scaffolding company has been fined and its director given a suspended prison sentence after a scaffolder suffered an 11,000-volt electric shock.
A garden landscaper has been handed a suspended prison sentence after a worker was killed when a moving circular saw kicked back into his groin.
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £480,000 after an employee suffered a brain injury after he was found unconscious in a manhole.
A joinery firm in south east London has been fined £14,000 for health and safety failings, including putting its workers at risk of exposure to wood dust.
A farming business has been fined after a member of the public died after being butted several times by a cow in front of two onlooking grandchildren.
An offshore drilling company has been fined after a crane boom collapsed catastrophically.
A company in Leicestershire has been fined £900,000 after a father-of-two was crushed to death.
A company and its director have been sentenced after an employee fell from height and suffered serious injuries.
A company has been fined £100k after onlookers spotted an employee working from height while standing on a pallet raised by a forklift truck at Ramsgate Harbour.
One of the largest health boards in Wales has been fined £200,000 after a patient died in its care. Llandudno
A yard manager has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years and a company fined £400,000 after an employee was killed in an industrial shredder.
Two offshore companies have been fined a combined total of more than £1.2m after an offshore worker’s feet were crushed while walking along a gangway over the North Sea.
A linen services company has been fined £100,000 after a man’s hand had to be amputated.
Nathan Baker, CEO at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, says it’s time to reassess safety for a modern workforce.
