| Health and Safety Executive | |
| Non-departmental public body | |
| Crown status: | Unknown |
| Legal basis: | Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, ss.10-11 |
| Established: | 1974 |
| Sponsoring department: | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Current head: | Chair - Judith Hackitt; Chief Executive - Geoffrey Podger |
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland. Responsibility in Northern Ireland lies with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. The HSE was created by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and has since absorbed earlier regulatory bodies such as the Factory Inspectorate and the Railway Inspectorate though the Railway Inspectorate was transferred to the Office of Rail Regulation in April 2006. The HSE is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. As part of its work HSE investigates industrial accidents, small and large, including major incidents such as the explosion and fire at Buncefield in 2005. Though it formerly reported to the Health and Safety Commission, on 1 April 2008, the two bodies merged.[1][2]
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The Executive's duties are to:[3]
The Executive is further obliged to keep the Secretary of State informed of its plans and ensure alignment with the policies of the Secretary of State, giving effect to any directions given to it.[4] The Secretary of State can give directions to the Executive.[5]
On 1 April 2006, the Executive ceased to have responsibility for railway safety.[6]
The Executive is responsible for the Employment Medical Advisory Service, which operates as part of its Field Operations Directorate.[7]
Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of health and safety legislation in shops, offices, and other parts of the service sector.
Agencies belonging to the HSE include
HSE's Explosives Inspectorate enforces the legislation for the classification and transport of explosives. It licenses manufacturing and larger storage sites.
Based in Buxton, Derbyshire, the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) employs over 350 people including scientists, engineers, psychologists, social scientists, health professionals and technical specialists. The services they provide include:
HM Inspectorate of Mines is responsible for the correct implementation and inspection of safe working procedures within all UK mine workings. It is based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.[8]
The Nuclear Directorate was one of the bodies merged into the Office for Nuclear Regulation on 1 April 2011. Largely based in Bootle, the Nuclear Directorate had four main functions:
The HSE has been criticised. Some of the criticism has been that its procedures are inadequate to protect safety. For example, the public enquiry by Lord Gill into the Stockline Plastics factory explosion criticised the HSE for "inadequate appreciation of the risks associated with buried LPG pipework ... and a failure properly to carry out check visits".[9] However, most criticism of the HSE is that their regulations are over-broad, suffocating, and part of a nanny state.[10] The Daily Telegraph, a right-wing broadsheet, has also been claimed that the HSE is part of a "compensation culture," that it is undemocratic and unaccountable,[11] that its rules are costing jobs.[12]
However, the HSE denies this,[13] saying that much of the criticism is misplaced because it relates to matters outside the HSE's remit. The HSE also responded to criticism by publishing a "Myth of the Month" section on its website between 2007 and 2010, which it described as "exposing the various myths about ‘health and safety’".[14][15] This has become a political issue in the UK. The Lord Young report, published in October 2010, recommended various reforms aiming "to free businesses from unnecessary bureaucratic burdens and the fear of having to pay out unjustified damages claims and legal fees."[16]
The HSE focuses regulation of health and safety in the following sectors of industry:
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