Health and Safety Executive

Health and Safety Executive
Agency overview
Formed1 January 1975 (1 January 1975)
Preceding agencies
  • Railway Inspectorate
  • Factory Inspectorate
  • Mines Inspectorate
  • Explosives Inspectorate
  • Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
TypeCrown status non-departmental public body
HeadquartersBootle, Merseyside, England
Agency executives
Parent departmentDepartment for Work and Pensions
Key document
Websitewww.hse.gov.uk

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in the United Kingdom. It is a non-departmental public body with its headquarters in Bootle, England.[1] In Northern Ireland, these duties lie 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 and Road in April 2006.[2] 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.[3][4]

  1. ^ "HSE offices". Health & Safety Executive. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  2. ^ Health and Safety Executive. "The history of HSE". hse.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 30 January 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  3. ^ Department for Work and Pensions (1 April 2008). "Health and Safety Commission and Health and Safety Executive merge to form a single regulatory body" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  4. ^ Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order 2008, SI 2008/960