2. The health and safety inspection and enforcement regime



Key changes and developments since last year



• Unions criticise HSE plans to tackle “blue tape”.


• Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has been renamed the Gangmasters Labour and Abuse Authority (GLAA) and will have a wider remit and "police-style" powers.


• An analysis of fines a year after new Sentencing Council guidelines were introduced in February 2016 found they have had a big impact on the size of fines for health and safety offences.


• The number of health and safety inspectors and inspections has continued to fall.


• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on changes to the way it considers disputes under its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), following a legal challenge.


• A new “growth duty” was enacted on 27 March 2017, mandating “non-economic” regulators, including the HSE, to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth” when exercising their functions.


• There have been on-going investigations into cladding at different social housing tower blocks across the country following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower which resulted in at least 80 fatalities.