How we work together

HSE has the national lead for Health and Safety policy.  Enforcement of health and safety law is split between HSE and Local Authorities (LAs) depending upon the activity undertaken by the dutyholder.

Local authority enforcement

HSE and local authority enforcement officers ensure that duty holders manage their workplaces with due regard to the health and safety of their workforce and those affected by their work activities. To achieve this, local authorities, as with HSE, provide advice and guidance on the management of risk and what the law requires, conduct inspections and investigations, and take enforcement action where appropriate.

HSE and Local Authority Representative Bodies have a  'Statement of Commitment' which sets out the joint commitment to ensure provision of adequate standards of working together as co-regulatory partners in order to prevent death, injury and ill health of those at work and those affected by work activities.

Statement of commitment between HSE and Local Authority representative bodies

HSE's Local Authority Unit

HSE's Local Authority Unit (LAU) provides national support to the HSE and local authorities (LAs) co-regulatory partnership for health and safety.  LAU's principal roles and responsibilities in connection with LAs as regulators of health and safety are as follows:

• Promotion and monitoring of consistency, proportionality and targeting of enforcement by LAs
• Support for the HSE/LA partnership governance arrangements
• Effective communications between LAs and HSE eg through the HELA Extranet (https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/HELA/default.aspx - login required)
• Provision of guidance

The unit also leads on national operational policy and industry engagement for the largely LA- enforced Entertainment & Leisure and Commercial/Consumer services sector. Information produced by the sector on specific topics is available from the guidance pages.

Further information on the work of HSE Sectors is available on the HSE website.