LRD guides and handbook July 2019

Health and safety law 2019

Chapter 11

Lack of enforcement

[ch 11: page 203]

The TUC says one of the reasons for the lack of progress in tackling stress is that the HSE does not enforce the Management Standards. While it can issue improvement notices, the TUC pointed out that the safety enforcement body had not issued one notice for stress in the five years to June 2017.

Last year the Mental Health Foundation charity called for stronger government and HSE action to ensure employers treat physical and psychological hazards in the workplace equally. Its Stress: are we coping? report calls for “an increase in enforcement of breaches, and the development of appropriate case law and precedents to enable staff to use in practice the rights they have in law to be protected from harm”.

Mental Health Foundation, Stress: are we coping? (www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/stress-are-we-coping)