HASAWA is short for the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the main piece of legislation governing workplace health and safety across Great Britain.1Health and Safety Executive. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 It sets out broad legal duties for employers, employees, and the self-employed, and it provides the framework under which more detailed regulations on chemicals, manual handling, construction, and other specific hazards are made. Rather than prescribing exact methods, the Act asks duty-holders to manage risk “so far as is reasonably practicable,” a phrase that runs through nearly every obligation it creates.
Who and Where It Applies
The Act covers England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent legislation, the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, so treating HASAWA as UK-wide is not quite right.2Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work Northern Ireland Order 1978 The HSE itself describes the Act as covering Great Britain.1Health and Safety Executive. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
Coverage inside Great Britain is broad. Construction sites, factories, offices, shops, warehouses, restaurants: almost every workplace falls within its reach, and duties apply to employers, employees, and the self-employed alike. The Act also protects people who are not at work themselves but could be affected by work activities, such as visitors, customers, and passers-by. A construction firm owes duties not only to its own workers but to anyone who could be struck by materials falling from the site.
What “Reasonably Practicable” Means
This phrase sits at the heart of the Act and is the concept most often misunderstood. It does not require you to eliminate every possible risk. It requires you to weigh the level of risk against the cost, time, and effort of reducing it.3Health and Safety Executive. Risk Assessment Steps Needed to Manage Risk Where a risk is high and the fix is cheap, there is no excuse for leaving it. Where a risk is trivial and the remedy would be disproportionate, the law does not demand it.
The burden of proof sits with the duty-holder. In a prosecution, it is for the employer or responsible person to show that further measures were not reasonably practicable, not for the HSE to prove that they were.
What Employers Must Do
Section 2 places the widest set of duties on employers. Every employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare at work of all their employees.4Isle of Man Government. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 In practice that means:
- Providing and maintaining safe machinery, tools, and systems of work.
- Managing the safe use, handling, storage, and transport of substances used at work.
- Giving workers the information, instruction, training, and supervision they need to do their jobs safely, and updating that training as risks change.
- Keeping the workplace itself safe, including how people enter and leave it.
- Providing adequate welfare facilities such as lighting, ventilation, toilets, and washing.
Any employer with five or more workers must also prepare a written health and safety policy, keep it up to date, and bring it to the attention of every employee.4Isle of Man Government. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 The policy has to cover both the employer’s general approach to safety and the specific arrangements for delivering it. Smaller businesses still owe the underlying duties; they are only excused from writing the policy down.
Section 3 extends employer duties beyond the workforce. Every employer must conduct their business in a way that does not expose members of the public, contractors, or anyone else affected by their operations to health or safety risks, so far as is reasonably practicable.5Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 3 A restaurant owes duties to diners, a builder to nearby residents, a warehouse to delivery drivers who are not on its payroll.
Section 4 catches a different situation: someone who controls a workplace but does not directly employ the people working in it. If you own or manage non-domestic premises that others use as a place of work, you must take reasonable measures to keep the premises, the ways in and out, and any equipment provided there safe.6Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 4 Landlords of office buildings and operators of shared workspaces fall squarely inside this duty.
What Employees Must Do
Safety is not a one-way obligation. Section 7 requires every employee to take reasonable care for their own health and safety and for that of anyone else who might be affected by what they do or fail to do at work.7Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 7 Ignoring a spill on a warehouse floor is not just careless. If a colleague slips on it, that inaction is a breach of a personal legal duty.
Employees must also cooperate with their employer on safety matters. If protective equipment is provided, workers are required to use it. Training that has been arranged is not optional. Section 8 goes further, making it an offence for any person to intentionally or recklessly interfere with anything provided in the interests of health and safety, such as tampering with fire extinguishers or disabling machine guards.7Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 7
Risk Assessments and RIDDOR Reporting
The Act sets the general duties. Two sets of regulations made under its authority turn those duties into concrete paperwork.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to carry out a risk assessment: identify what could cause injury or illness, judge how likely and how serious the harm could be, and take action to eliminate or control the risk.8Health and Safety Executive. Managing Risks and Risk Assessment at Work Assessments are not a one-off exercise. They must be reviewed whenever circumstances change, whether that means new equipment, altered processes, or a near-miss that exposes a gap.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, known as RIDDOR, then set the rules for telling the HSE when something goes wrong. The deadlines are tight:
- Deaths and specified injuries must be reported without delay, with a written report reaching the HSE within 10 days. Fatal accidents can also be reported by phone.9Health and Safety Executive. When Do I Need to Report an Incident
- If a worker is unable to perform their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days (not counting the day of the accident), the employer must report within 15 days.9Health and Safety Executive. When Do I Need to Report an Incident
- Occupational diseases must be reported as soon as a diagnosis is received.
- Certain dangerous occurrences, meaning near-miss events with the potential to cause death or serious injury, must be reported without delay even where no one was hurt.10Health and Safety Executive. Dangerous Occurrences
How the Act Is Enforced
The HSE enforces the Act in most workplaces. Local authorities take responsibility for premises such as shops, offices, and leisure facilities.11Health and Safety Executive. Guidance on the Appointment of Local Authority Inspectors to Enforce the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 Inspectors can enter any workplace without notice to check conditions and review records.
Where an inspector finds a breach, the usual response is an improvement notice. It identifies the legal provision being broken and sets a deadline for the fix, and the deadline cannot fall inside the appeal period, so employers always have time to challenge it first.12Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 21 A prohibition notice is more serious. Where an inspector believes an activity involves a risk of serious personal injury, they can order it stopped, and the notice can take effect immediately.13Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 22 A prohibition notice does not require an existing breach; the risk alone is enough.
Breaching the core duties in Sections 2 to 6, or failing to comply with a notice, is a criminal offence. For the most serious offences tried on indictment, individuals face up to two years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.14Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Schedule 3A Organisations convicted on indictment face unlimited fines, and the Sentencing Council’s guideline range runs from £50 up to £10 million depending on the size of the business and the seriousness of the breach.15Sentencing Council. Health and Safety Offences Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences Definitive Guideline
Directors and senior managers are not shielded by the corporate structure. Under Section 37, where a company’s offence is shown to have been committed with the consent, connivance, or neglect of a director, manager, or company secretary, that individual is personally guilty of the same offence and can be prosecuted and sentenced in their own right.16Legislation.gov.uk. Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – Section 37
On top of any fine, the HSE runs a cost-recovery scheme called Fee for Intervention. Where an inspector finds a material breach, the business pays for the time the HSE spends identifying it and helping put it right.17Health and Safety Executive. What Is Fee for Intervention The hourly rate rose to £188 from April 2026.18Health and Safety Executive. Update to HSE Cost Recovery Hourly Rates Simple verbal or written advice does not trigger a fee; the charge only applies once the inspector formally notifies the business of a contravention in writing. For an inspection that uncovers multiple issues and stretches over several days, the bill builds quickly.