The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) is a core piece of law reps need to be familiar with in order to be able to carry out their functions effectively. The HSWA covers virtually all workers in almost all occupations, although it does not uniformly cover those classified as self-employed (see pages 5-6). In January to March 2024, there were around 28.6 million people working as employees and 4.25 million were self-employed.