Statute by statute, plainly — with real prosecutions.
The longer version of The Law. Every major regulation, what HSE expects, a real case behind each, and one thing you can do today.
One foundation. The regulations on top.
A short, plain-English look at the framework: one foundation Act, then the key regulations that sit beneath it and tell you how to meet the duty.
HSWA 1974
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. Duties on employers, employees, the self-employed, and suppliers.
MHSWR 1999
Management of Health and Safety at Work
Risk assessment, planning, organisation, control, monitoring, review.
MHOR 1992
Manual Handling Operations
Avoid, assess, reduce the risk — in that order.
PPER 1992
Personal Protective Equipment at Work
Suitable, supplied, maintained, used — and only after the other controls.
PUWER 1998
Provision and Use of Work Equipment
Suitable, safe, maintained — used by trained people.
WHSWR 1992
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare)
Ventilation, temperature, light, cleanliness, room, rest, water.
DSE 1992
Display Screen Equipment
Workstation assessment, training, breaks, eye tests for screen users.
Beyond the Six. Other major regulations — CDM 2015 (construction), COSHH 2002 (hazardous substances), LOLER 1998 (lifting), DSEAR 2002 (explosive atmospheres) and the rest — sit on the same foundation, applied where the work demands them.
Four kinds of document. Different weight.
An Act, a Regulation and an ACoP look similar on the page. They are not the same in court.
Acts of Parliament
Primary legislation. HSWA 1974. Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007. The duty itself.
Regulations
Statutory instruments under an Act. The specifics: what, when, how. Breach is a criminal offence.
ACoPs
Approved Codes of Practice. Special legal status. If you do not follow them, you must prove you reached the same standard another way.
HSE guidance
Practical advice. Not law in itself, but courts treat departure from it as something you have to explain.
How the law actually fits together.
For each regulation: plain English, what HSE expects, and one thing you can do today. A real case under each sits below, as evidence.
This is a selection. UK workplace-safety law is much wider than what you see here. We have covered the Acts and regulations that touch almost every business. The “Other regulations you may meet” section further down lists the ones we have not detailed.
HSWA 1974
MHSWR 1999
MHOR 1992
PPER 1992
PUWER 1998
WHSWR 1992
DSE 1992
Beyond the Six
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
The foundation. General duties on employers (s.2 / s.3), the self-employed and suppliers. Almost every safety prosecution traces back here.
“This tragic incident could easily have been prevented. The failure to properly recognise the hazards — and a general lack of knowledge of good practice — meant the control measures in place were inadequate.”
HSE Inspector David Myrtle, after the Chemring prosecution
- Write down your top five risks — properly, by hand if needed.
- Ask one person on the floor what they think is most likely to hurt someone.
- Check whether your current controls actually match what you wrote down.
Chemring Countermeasures Ltd. Explosion at a military-flare factory killed Piotr Zukowski and seriously burned a second worker. No suitable risk assessment, build-up of explosive waste, licence-condition breaches.
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
The how-to. Risk assessment, planning, organisation, control, monitoring, review.
“Employers must identify what could cause injury or illness, decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously, and take action to eliminate the hazard, or where this isn’t possible, control the risk.”
HSE — Managing risks and risk assessment at work
- Pull out your existing risk assessment. Is the latest date on it before April this year?
- If yes, walk the site with it today and update it as you go.
- If you don’t have one written down, that’s the work for the week.
Honeyrose Products Ltd (Ipswich). Worker injured by inadequately guarded and managed work equipment. No suitable & sufficient risk assessment in place.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations
Avoid hazardous manual handling. Where you can’t, assess and reduce the risk — in that order.
“A risk assessment must be suitable and sufficient. Generic assessments are acceptable only if they legitimately draw together strands common to several operations — and must take account of an individual’s health problems and the need for training.”
HSE L23 — Manual handling: guidance on regulations
- Identify the three heaviest, most-repeated lifts in your operation right now.
- For each, ask: can it be avoided, automated, reduced, or shared?
- If the answer to all four is no, the assessment had better be specific to that lift — not generic.
British Airways plc. Three baggage-handler injuries at Heathrow (including a fractured spine and a dislocated knee) linked to manual handling and equipment failings.
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations
PPE must be suitable, supplied, maintained, worn — and only used after the other controls have been applied.
“PPE must be suitable for the risks involved, the conditions where it is used, ergonomic requirements and the state of health of the wearer. Where more than one item is worn at the same time, they must be compatible.”
HSE — Using the right type of PPE
- Walk the floor without warning. Is the right PPE actually being worn?
- If not, ask why — comfort, supply, training, no time. Fix the cause, not the symptom.
- PPE is the last line. If you are relying on it heavily, the other controls are doing too little.
Flowchem UK Ltd. Worker suffered chemical burns from a corrosive drain-unblocker. HSE found PPE was not routinely worn, training was inadequate, first-aid arrangements insufficient.
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations
Equipment must be suitable, maintained, safe, and used only by trained people. Dangerous parts must be guarded.
“Too many workers are injured or killed every year because of failures to guard dangerous parts of machinery. We will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all they should to keep people safe when working with machinery.”
HSE Inspector Shauna Halstead
- Identify every dangerous moving part in your operation. Write them down.
- For each one, check the guard is there, is the right type, and is actually used.
- If a guard is removed for maintenance, that maintenance has its own risk assessment — not the same one.
F.J. Church and Sons Ltd (London metals recycler). Inadequate guarding on machinery exposed workers to serious injury risk.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations
Ventilation, temperature, light, cleanliness, space, rest, washing, drinking water — and floors that don’t trip people up.
“Floors must be suitable for their purpose, in good condition and free from obstructions or substances likely to cause a person to slip. Ventilation, lighting, temperature, space, sanitary conveniences and drinking water are also required.”
HSE INDG244 — Workplace health, safety and welfare
- Walk the workplace looking only at the floor. Spills, trailing cables, worn coverings, slippery surfaces.
- Check the welfare basics: drinking water, clean and stocked toilets, somewhere to take breaks.
- The slip-and-trip risk is the most common, the most ignored, and the easiest to fix.
Supermarket prosecution. Customer injured slipping on water leaking from a chiller cabinet. Floor not kept suitable, in good condition, or free from substances.
Display Screen Equipment Regulations
Workstation assessments, training, breaks and eye tests for people who use screens regularly. The law applies even when prosecution is rare.
“Employers must do a workstation assessment, reduce risks (including making sure workers take breaks from DSE work or do something different), provide an eye test if a worker asks for one, and provide training and information.”
HSE INDG36 — Working safely with display screen equipment
- Send out workstation self-assessments to anyone who works at a screen daily.
- Promise eye tests on request — and mean it.
- Build short breaks into the work pattern. Not because the law says so — because it’s how people actually keep working well.
CDM, COSHH, LOLER, DSEAR — applied where the work demands them
Specialist regulations under HSWA. A real case under each, for evidence.
Sub-contractor Mark Tolley fell ~1.8m through an unguarded scaffold opening at a Headcorn housing site and died of his injuries. Amberley had not appointed competent management or controlled the site.
Repeated wood-dust exposure failings. HSE Inspector Tracy Fox: “When HSE identifies repeated similar significant failings, a prosecution will always be considered.”
Fatal sling failure. HSE Principal Inspector Ross Carter: “This death could so easily have been prevented if the employer had fulfilled its statutory duty to plan and manage the risks associated with lifting equipment and operations.”
Sparks from a grinder ignited flammable gases in an 11m slurry tank; explosion gave two workers life-changing injuries.
This page is a selection. UK safety law is wider.
A non-exhaustive list of other regulations that apply depending on what your business actually does. Each has its own duties — and its own enforcement record.
RIDDOR 2013
Reporting injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences. Some incidents must be reported to HSE within ten days.
IRR 2017
Ionising Radiations Regulations. Anyone working with radiation or radioactive substances.
CAR 2012
Control of Asbestos Regulations. Survey, manage, train, license — for any building built before 2000.
CLAW 2002
Control of Lead at Work. Exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, control measures.
CNW 2005
Control of Noise at Work. Action and limit values, hearing protection, health surveillance.
CVW 2005
Control of Vibration at Work. Hand-arm and whole-body vibration limits and assessments.
RR(FS)O 2005
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. Risk-based fire safety in non-domestic premises — enforced by the local fire authority.
WTR 1998
Working Time Regulations. Hours, breaks, paid leave, night-work limits — a safety regulation in everything but name.
EQA 2010
Equality Act. Reasonable adjustments and the duty to consider safety alongside dignity.
EAWR 1989
Electricity at Work Regulations. Construction, maintenance, work on or near electrical equipment.
FFW 1981
First-aid at Work Regulations. Provision, training, and the assessment of need.
HSCER 1996
Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations. Consultation duties where no recognised union.
Sector and substance-specific. There are dozens more — mines, quarries, diving, offshore, agriculture, animals, biological agents, confined spaces, work at height, REACH, pesticides, food safety. If your operation touches any of them, the regulation will too. The point is not to memorise the list. It is to know that the list exists, and to find competent advice when you need it.
Safe by choice has to start with a choice.
Twenty minutes. An honest conversation about your people, your risks, the work you are carrying. No pitch. No follow-up sequence. By the end we will both know whether there is something we can help with — and either way, you leave with at least one useful thing.
Because the workplace people walk into tomorrow is the one we decide on today.