2. Health and safety law (criminal law)
Under health and safety law, as an employer, you have a responsibility to protect workers and others from risk to their health and safety. For straightforward guidance on how to comply with the law, read Health and safety basics for your business.
Health and safety law is mostly enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the local authority. Responsibility for enforcement depends on the type of workplace.
For your workplace, find out who enforces health and safety law.
Legislation
Health and safety law for Great Britain is made up of:
- Acts of Parliament
- statutory instruments (regulations)
The main piece of legislation is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA). You can read this on legislation.gov.uk.
Certain work activities have specific regulations, such as those for construction work or working with asbestos.
Industry specific health and safety legislation
Complying with the law
No one has to have been harmed for an offence to be committed under HSWA – there only has to be a risk of harm.
The most important thing is what you actually do to manage and control risk in the workplace. Paperwork alone does not prove that you're complying with the law.
If you do not comply with the law
If you do not comply with a regulation relevant to your work, you'll normally be committing a criminal offence and could:
- get verbal or written advice
- get an improvement or prohibition notice
- be prosecuted
If HSE have to help you put things right, you'll need to pay for their time. This is called a 'fee for intervention' (FFI).