Targeted enforcement


Enforcement resources are now targeted at the most “hazardous” workplaces. However, unions and safety campaigners have expressed concern that particular sectors have been identified as “low risk” (and so in no need of proactive inspection) without any obvious reason.


The DWP reported in 2014 that “major hazard” industries will continue to be regulated at a high level and will continue to be subject to unannounced inspection, although a “light-touch” approach is to be adopted for “responsible businesses” that “do the right thing”. Examples given of “major hazard” industries are construction, waste, recycling and certain areas of high-risk manufacturing, for example molten and base metal manufacture.


However, construction union UCATT reported that figures it had obtained revealed a 13% decline in the number of HSE inspections taking place on construction sites over the last three years. Using a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to discover the number of proactive (unannounced) construction inspections by the HSE for the year 2015/16, the union found there had been a total of 9,219 inspections in this period compared to 9,656 in 2014/15, a decrease of 4% (https://www.ucatt.org.uk/construction-inspections-show-further-decline). A previous FOI request for 2014/5 found there had been a 8.7% reduction in visits compared to 2012/13.


A new statutory “growth duty” for “non-economic regulators” (including the HSE) came into force under the Deregulation Act 2015. The new duty requires these regulators to take account of the impact of their activities on the economic prospects of firms they regulate. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has published guidance for regulators on the new growth duty, which can be accessed on the Gov.uk website (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/498638/bis-16-94a-growth-duty-draft-guidance.pdf).