Health & Safety: An Overview

A Look Over the Last 12 Months

This year saw the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) mark its 50^th birthday. In her comments marking the occasion, HSE Chief Executive Sarah Albon referred back to 2022’s ten-year strategy, “Protecting People and Places”, remarking that:

“It was important for us to set out our stall with this strategy, because over the 5 years I’ve been HSE’s chief executive, much of my time has been spent looking at requests from all sections of society to expand our role beyond workplaces and into issues that can cause harm to communities and the environment too. While we’ve carefully considered all these requests, we are not best placed to lead on everyone. But we’ve certainly taken on big new areas of responsibility and expect to see our work grow over time.”

One of the “big new areas” that the HSE has committed to confront is work-related ill-health, namely mental health and stress. In line with their ten-year strategy goal, the HSE launched their “Working Minds” campaign during November 2024’s “Stress Awareness Week”, encouraging employers to meet their legal duty to prevent work-related stress. This was followed by the introduction of a free online learning tool to “help employers tackle work-related stress” during May 2025’s Mental Health Awareness Week. It remains to be seen whether the HSE’s increased focus on work-related mental-health issues will result in increased enforcement action.

The HSE’s reference to areas that they are “not best placed to lead” could be referring to the HSWA 1974 (Amendment) Bill which proposed extending the duties of employers under the act to include protecting workers against violence and harassment (including gender-based and sexual violence as well as emotional and psychological abuse). The Bill was withdrawn on 19 June 2025 following its first reading in the House of Commons – which may well have drawn a sigh of relief from the regulator.

Another milestone in health and safety law for 2025 was The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law, receiving Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. Following the implementation period, we will have a new regulator established through the Security Industry Authority. Qualifying premises and events will have new duties, the extent of which will depend on the number of anticipated attendants.

The duties include having in place, “so far as reasonably practicable”, appropriate public protection measures:

• that may be expected to reduce the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals in the event of an act of terrorism at the premises or in the vicinity thereof, for example, relating to evacuation, invacuation, or locking down (standard duty); and
• that could be expected to reduce both (i) the vulnerability of the premises or event to an act of terrorism, and (ii) the risk of physical harm being caused to individuals if an attack were to occur there or nearby, for example, implementing measures to monitor the premises and immediate vicinity (enhanced duty).

Breaches of the act could give rise to penalties, including compliance notices, restriction notices and penalty notices as well as possible prosecutions in relation to new criminal offences. No doubt those in the industry and their advisers will be hoping the forthcoming SIA Guidance provides some clarity on what constitutes “reasonably practicable” measures.

Sentencing Round-Up

Meanwhile, the routine business of prosecuting (usually) organisations following serious accidents continued, with a number of high fines, as described below.

• November 2024:
  • Brand Energy and Infrastructure UK Ltd was fined GBP1.6 million concerning the death of a 24-year-old worker. The worker was crushed to death after a load fell on him when a lifting sling snapped.
  • The owners of Ginsters were fined GBP1.28 million after an employee was crushed by a lorry delivering supplies as it reversed into a loading bay.
• February 2025:
  • Wood-based product manufacturer West Fraser (Europe) Ltd was fined GBP1.04 million after two workers were injured in separate incidents. One worker became trapped in machinery whilst carrying out an inspection. The second incident involved a worker falling from height after the structure he was working on gave way.
• April 2025:
  • Cambridgeshire County Council was fined GBP6 million following serious safety failings on its Guided Busway over a ten-year period which resulted in three deaths and multiple injuries.
  • Paddleboard business owner Nerys Lloyd was jailed for ten years and six months in relation to charges of gross negligence manslaughter arising from a tragic incident in 2021 in Haverfordwest Town Weir which resulted in the death of four paddleboarders.
  • Chemical manufacturing company Industrial Chemicals Ltd was fined GBP2.5 million following two incidents of uncontrolled releases of highly corrosive acids at its site in Essex.
• May 2025:
  • British Airways was fined more than GBP3.2 million following two separate worker injuries at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 following falls from height whilst unloading baggage containers from aircraft.
• July 2025:
  • Steel manufacturer Tata Steel was fined GBP1.5 million following the death of a contractor at its Port Talbot steelworks plant. The contractor had been working to fix a conveyor system where a hydraulic leak had been discovered. Tata Steel had failed to ensure that power had been adequately isolated to the conveyor system which resulted in the activation of a moving beam causing the fatal injury.
  • Grocery supplier Bestway Northern Ltd was fined GBP1 million after a worker was killed by a reversing HGV during a delivery, becoming trapped between the vehicle and a wall.

Such outcomes, however, are perhaps not as inevitable as they once were in light of the pressures on the criminal justice system, including record backlogs in the criminal courts, and a stated intention by the HSE to regulate in “different ways” given the maturity and understanding of safety risks in many UK businesses, with the UK having one of the lowest rates of work-related injury across Europe.

Looking Ahead

A number of high-profile investigations and prosecutions will continue into the next year. Inevitably, the most serious alleged breaches continue to be prosecuted.

In January 2025, charges of corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter were authorised against UK Athletics Ltd and its former Head of Sport, Keith Davies, in relation to the 2017 death of United Arab Emirates Paralympian Abdullah Hayayei. Mr Hayayei died after a metal throwing cage fell on him while he was training for the shot put at Newham Leisure Centre.

In April 2025, a charge of corporate manslaughter was authorised against Britannia Jinkey Jersy Ltd (Pontins’ parent company) as well as a charge under Section 3 of the HSWA 1974 against another, following an incident in 2019 where sections of ducting collapsed into the bar area of a building in a holiday park causing one death and injuring 18 people.

In August 2025, it was announced that, further to the conclusion of the investigation by Essex Police, HSE would take the lead in investigating the death of Gogglebox star George Gilbey following his fatal fall from a roof.