The National Enforcement Code

The statutory National Enforcement Code explicitly outlaws proactive inspections outside “high risk areas” by both the HSE and local authority regulators and exempts hundreds of thousands of businesses from “burdensome” health and safety inspections. Businesses will now only be inspected if they are operating in high-risk areas, such as construction, or if they have a poor safety record. The Code can be found on the HSE website at: www.hse.gov.uk/lau/la-enforcement-code.htm.

The Code is designed to ensure that local authority (LA) health and safety regulators take a more consistent and proportionate approach to their regulatory interventions. It sets out the government expectations of a risk based approach to targeting. Whilst the primary responsibility for managing health and safety risks lies with the business who creates the risk, the HSE says: “LA health and safety regulators have an important role in ensuring the effective and proportionate management of risks, supporting business, protecting their communities and contributing to the wider public health agenda.”

To assist LAs understand and implement the Code, supplementary guidance was published on 29 June 2013. Further information at: www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/67-2.htm.