Health and Safety at Work Act 1974: What Employers Must Do

What Is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974?

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (often shortened to HSWA or HASAWA) is the foundation of workplace safety law in Great Britain. It received Royal Assent on 31 July 1974 and its main duties came into force on 1 April 1975. Before it, safety law was a patchwork of rules for particular industries. The Act replaced that with one set of general duties that apply to almost every workplace and every worker.

It does two jobs. First, it sets out broad duties for employers, employees, the self-employed, people who control premises and suppliers. Second, it is an “enabling” Act: it lets the government make more detailed regulations, such as the rules on risk assessment, hazardous substances and incident reporting, and lets the HSE approve codes of practice that explain how to comply.

The Act covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent, the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, enforced by HSENI. The duties are very similar.

If you employ people, the Act applies to you, whatever your size or sector. The rest of this guide explains what that means in practice, and where health and safety training fits in.

What Does “So Far as Is Reasonably Practicable” Mean?

Almost every duty in the Act is qualified by four words: so far as is reasonably practicable. It is the phrase that makes the law workable, and the one most often misunderstood.

It means you weigh the risk against the time, money and trouble needed to control it. You must take a precaution unless the cost is grossly disproportionate to the benefit. A cheap, simple step that removes a real risk is always expected. An enormous cost to remove a tiny risk is not.

Three points catch employers out:

• The bar is high. “Grossly disproportionate” favours safety. You can’t skip a precaution just because it is inconvenient or eats into profit.
• Nobody has to be hurt. HSE points out that an offence under the Act needs only a risk of harm, not an injury.
• The burden of proof is on you. Under section 40, if you are prosecuted, it is up to you to show that you did everything reasonably practicable. That is why written risk assessments and training records matter.

In most cases you don’t need to work this out from scratch. Regulations, HSE guidance and approved codes of practice set out what good practice looks like. If you follow them, you are normally doing enough.

What Are an Employer’s Duties Under Section 2?

Section 2(1) is the heart of the Act: every employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees.

Section 2(2) then spells out five areas this includes:

1. Safe plant and systems of work. Machinery and equipment that is safe and maintained, and safe ways of doing the job.
2. Safe use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances, from boxes on a pallet to chemicals in a cleaning cupboard.
3. Information, instruction, training and supervision so people can work safely.
4. A safe place of work, kept in good condition, with safe ways in and out.
5. A safe working environment with adequate welfare facilities: toilets, washing facilities, drinking water, rest areas, sensible temperatures and lighting.

The rest of section 2 covers the written policy (2(3)) and consultation with employees (2(4) to 2(7)), both below.

The duty covers health as well as safety, and welfare as well as both. Work-related stress, musculoskeletal problems and exposure to dust or fumes are all health risks the Act expects you to manage.

Do You Need a Written Health and Safety Policy?

Section 2(3) requires a written health and safety policy, revised as often as needed and brought to the notice of all your employees. The Employers’ Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975 exempt employers with fewer than five employees, so in practice the written policy applies once you have five or more. HSE says every business must still have a policy for managing health and safety; with fewer than five employees you don’t have to write it down, but it is useful to do so.

HSE’s guidance says a policy should cover three areas:

1. Statement of intent. Your commitment to managing health and safety and your aims, signed by the employer or most senior person in the business and reviewed regularly.
2. Responsibilities. The names, positions and roles of the people with specific health and safety responsibilities: who has overall responsibility, who looks after day-to-day matters, and who does jobs such as risk assessments, first aid and fire checks.
3. Arrangements. The practical arrangements that show how you will achieve your aims, such as risk assessment, training, consultation, equipment checks, hazardous substances, accidents and first aid, emergency procedures and how you monitor it all.

Keep it short and true to how you work. A policy copied from another business, which nobody follows, can count against you after an incident. Our free Health and Safety Policy Template, at the end of this guide, follows the HSE’s three-part structure. HSE also has guidance on how to prepare a health and safety policy.

What Does Section 3 Say About Contractors and the Public?

Your duties don’t stop at your own staff. Section 3 requires employers to run their business so that, so far as is reasonably practicable, people who aren’t their employees are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. That includes contractors, agency workers, visitors, customers, neighbours and passers-by.

In practice, that means checking contractors are competent, sharing information about the risks on your site, and agreeing who controls what. A builder working in your warehouse, a delivery driver in your yard and a member of the public in your shop are all owed a duty.

Section 3 also applies to some self-employed people. Since 1 October 2015, the duty applies only to self-employed people whose work may put others at risk, or who carry out one of six prescribed activities: agriculture, construction, gas work, asbestos, railways and genetically modified organisms. A self-employed person who employs nobody and whose work poses no risk to anyone else is outside health and safety law.

Two other sections are worth knowing:

• Section 4 places duties on anyone who controls non-domestic premises used as a place of work by people who aren’t their employees, such as a landlord of a business unit or the owner of shared offices.
• Section 6 places duties on anyone who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies articles or substances for use at work. They must be safe, tested where needed, and come with adequate information.

What Must Employees Do?

Health and safety is not only the employer’s job. Under section 7, every employee must:

• take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and that of anyone else affected by what they do or fail to do
• co-operate with their employer so the employer can meet its legal duties

Section 8 applies to everyone: no one may intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided for health, safety or welfare. Propping open a fire door, removing a machine guard or taking the batteries out of a smoke alarm are classic examples.

Section 9 protects employees: an employer must not charge them for anything the law requires, such as personal protective equipment (PPE).

The Management Regulations (below) add that employees must use equipment and substances in line with their training and instructions, and tell their employer about serious dangers and shortcomings in safety arrangements. Employees can be prosecuted personally for breaching section 7, although enforcement normally focuses on the employer.

How Do the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Fit In?

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 turn the Act’s general duties into a working system. They are where most of an employer’s day-to-day obligations come from:

• Risk assessment (regulation 3). You must assess the risks to employees and others affected by your work. With five or more employees, record the significant findings and any group of employees identified as especially at risk. Our guide to the 5 steps to risk assessment walks through the process, and our risk assessment template gives you a format to use.
• Principles of prevention (regulation 4). Avoid risks where you can, tackle them at source, and put collective protection ahead of PPE.
• Arrangements (regulation 5). Plan, organise, control, monitor and review your preventive measures. With five or more employees, record them (your policy’s arrangements section does this).
• Health surveillance (regulation 6) where the risk assessment shows it is needed, such as for noise, vibration or certain substances.
• Competent person (regulation 7). Appoint one or more competent people to help you comply. They need sufficient training and experience or knowledge. If you have a competent person on your staff, the regulations say you must appoint them in preference to an outside consultant.
• Emergency procedures (regulation 8) for serious and imminent danger, including enough competent people to help with evacuation.
• Information (regulation 10) for employees about the risks and the controls in place.
• Co-operation (regulations 11 and 12) with other employers who share your workplace, and information for people from other businesses working on your site.
• Training (regulation 13), covered below.
• Special groups. Specific risk assessment for new and expectant mothers (regulation 16), and assessment and protection for young people under 18 (regulations 3 and 19).

Do Employers Have to Consult Employees?

Yes. Section 2(6) and two sets of regulations require you to consult your workforce on health and safety:

• where you recognise a trade union, through union-appointed safety representatives, under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977
• where you don’t, directly with employees or through elected representatives, under the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996

Consultation must happen in good time, before decisions are made. It covers changes that affect health and safety, such as new equipment, new processes or new technology, the appointment of competent people, and the information and training you plan to provide.

Consultation is also good management. The people doing the job usually know where the real risks are. Toolbox talks, team meetings and a simple way to raise concerns all count, as long as you listen and act on what you hear.

What Training Does the Law Require?

Section 2(2)(c) requires employers to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision needed for health and safety. Regulation 13 of the Management Regulations makes this specific. You must take people’s capabilities into account when giving them tasks, and provide adequate training:

• when they start
• when they are exposed to new or increased risks: a new job or responsibilities, new equipment, new technology or a changed system of work
• repeated periodically where appropriate
• during working hours (and, under section 9, you can’t charge employees for training the law requires)

Specific regulations add their own training duties: manual handling, hazardous substances, fire safety, first aid and more. Your risk assessments tell you who needs what.

The law cares about competence, not certificates. A training record shows you provided training. It doesn’t prove people understood it or changed how they work. Short, practical, job-specific training that people remember does far more for you, before and after an incident, than a box ticked once a year.

For managers and supervisors, IOSH Managing Safely covers legal duties, risk assessment, controls and incidents. For the wider team, IOSH Working Safely gives every employee the basics in one day, and our online courses cover individual topics.

Who Enforces the Act?

Two bodies enforce health and safety law in Great Britain:

• the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), for workplaces such as factories, building sites, farms, schools and hospitals
• local authorities (environmental health), for most offices, shops, hotels, restaurants, pubs, leisure premises and care homes

Inspectors have wide powers under section 20. They can enter workplaces, examine and investigate, take samples, photographs and measurements, and require people to answer questions. Where they find a problem, they can:

1. Give advice, verbally or in writing.
2. Serve an improvement notice (section 21), requiring you to put a breach right within a set time. HSE says it will give you at least 21 days.
3. Serve a prohibition notice (section 22), stopping an activity that involves a risk of serious personal injury. It can take effect immediately.
4. Prosecute.

You can appeal against a notice to an employment tribunal, normally within 21 days of the notice being sent. Appealing suspends an improvement notice. It suspends a prohibition notice only if the tribunal directs it. Where an HSE inspector writes to you about a material breach (a notification of contravention), HSE also recovers the cost of its time from you through its Fee for Intervention scheme, charged at an hourly rate.

In Scotland, the decision to prosecute rests with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Fire safety is enforced separately, by the fire and rescue authorities.

What Are the Penalties for Breaking the Act?

Breaching the Act or its regulations is a criminal offence under section 33. Since the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008, and later changes to magistrates’ sentencing powers, the penalties in England and Wales are severe:

• Organisations face an unlimited fine in both the magistrates’ court and the Crown Court.
• Individuals face an unlimited fine and, for most offences, imprisonment: up to two years in the Crown Court.

In England and Wales, courts must follow the Sentencing Council’s definitive guideline for health and safety offences unless that would be contrary to the interests of justice. HSE doesn’t set sentences or fines; the courts do.

Directors and managers can be prosecuted personally. Under section 37, if a company commits an offence with the consent or connivance of, or through the neglect of, a director, manager or similar officer, that person is also guilty. Where the way an organisation is managed or organised causes a death through a gross breach of a duty of care, and senior management’s failings are a substantial part of that breach, the organisation can also be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter (corporate homicide in Scotland).

Prosecution is the end of the line. The real costs usually start earlier: lost time, investigation, insurance, Fee for Intervention invoices, and the effect on your team.

Which Regulations Sit Under the Act?

The Act sets the general duties. These regulations say what they mean for particular risks. Your risk assessment tells you which apply to you.

Regulation	What it covers	Our guide
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999	Risk assessment, competent person, training, emergencies	5 steps to risk assessment
RIDDOR 2013	Reporting deaths, serious injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences	What is RIDDOR?
COSHH Regulations 2002	Hazardous substances: chemicals, dusts, fumes, biological agents	What is COSHH?
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992	Lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling	The 1992 Regulations explained
Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981	First-aid equipment, facilities and people
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992	Toilets, washing, drinking water, temperature, lighting, traffic routes
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998	Safe, maintained work equipment and training to use it
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992	Suitable PPE, free of charge, with training
Work at Height Regulations 2005	Planning and controlling work at height
Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992	Workstation assessments and eye tests for screen users

Fire safety sits alongside the Act rather than under it. In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires a fire risk assessment, fire precautions and enough trained people, such as fire marshals. Scotland has the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005.

Two more basics apply to almost every employer. You must display the HSE-approved health and safety law poster or give each worker the equivalent leaflet, under the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989. And you must hold employers’ liability insurance under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, with cover of at least £5 million under its 1998 Regulations.

What to Do Next

You don’t need to memorise the Act. You need to show that you have thought about your risks, done what is reasonably practicable and made sure your people know their part. This week:

1. Check your policy. If you have five or more employees, is it written down, signed, dated and true to how you work? If not, start with the template below.
2. Check your risk assessments. Are they current, and do they cover the risks your people actually face?
3. Check who is competent. Who helps you meet your duties, and are they trained for it?
4. Check your training records. Has everyone had induction training, and training for new risks and roles?
5. Check your reporting. Does everyone know how to report an accident, and does a manager know what goes to the HSE under RIDDOR?

If any of those show gaps, our health and safety training covers managers, supervisors and whole teams, live online, as e-learning or at your premises.