1. An overview of health and safety law

This chapter provides an overview of UK health and safety law explaining how laws, regulations, codes of practice, duties and accompanying guidance govern health and safety at work, including how the law is changing post-Brexit.

Key changes and developments

In an important February 2022 ruling on employment status for individuals denied the right to any paid annual leave on the basis that they are not “workers”, heating engineer Gary Smith won his long-running holiday pay claim against his former employer in Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Limited [2022] EWCA Civ 70;

In Stuart Delivery Ltd v Augustine [2022] IRLR 56, the Court of Appeal found a moped delivery courier was a “worker” under section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 despite a limited right of substitution;

In September 2022, the government laid a “Brexit Freedoms Bill” that means all EU law will be amended, repealed, or replaced. This could have consequences for EU-derived health and safety legislation.