Health and safety inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or your local authority can enter any workplace without notice. An inspector will look at the work place and your management of health and safety to check that you are meeting health and safety law.
Health and safety law
If health and safety laws are not being met the inspector will let you know what action is going to be taken. This may be
Informal
If the problem is minor the inspector will tell the person in charge of health and safety (the duty holder)what they must do to meet the law and tell them why. You can ask the inspector to put this in writing and advise on best practice.
Improvement notice
Where the breach of the law is more serious, the inspector may issue an improvement notice to tell the duty holder to do something to meet with the law. The notice will say what needs to be done, why, and by when. The inspector can take further legal action if these recommendations are not done in the specified time.
Prohibition notice
If an activity involves a risk of serious personal injury, the inspector may serve a prohibition notice stopping the activity either immediately or after a specified period of time, and not allowing it to be resumed until the activity has been made safe. The notice will explain why the action is necessary. The duty holder will be told in writing about the right of appeal to an industrial tribunal (see ‘appeals’ below).
Prosecution
In some cases the inspector may decide to prosecute. This could mean a fine of up to £20,000, or six months’ imprisonment, or both depending on the offence.
Appeals
A duty holder will be told in writing about the right of appeal to an industrial tribunal when an improvement or prohibition notice is served. The duty holder will be told:
Complaints
If you have a complaint that the procedures have not been followed, you can contact the inspector’s manager to discuss the matter.
How to find out more about health and safety law and how it is enforced
The HSE produces a large number of free and priced publications to help you with the law. You can order a catalogue of these from HSE Books. P0 Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 6FS Tel: (01787) 881165 Fax: (01787) 313995.
HSE priced publications are also available from good booksellers.
For other enquiries, ring HSE’s infoline tel: 0541-545500, or write to HSE’s Information Centre, Broad Lane, Sheffield, S3 7HQ
If the Health and Safety Executive have taken legal action against a business and they have been prosecuted the details are on their website. You can find out more by following their link to the web site.
We keep a register of premises where we have enforced health and safety regulations through the courts. If you want to find out more information you can contact us using the contact details at the top right hand side of the page.