Last year we celebrated 50 years since the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (the 1974 Act) was introduced. Since 1 January 2025, we can also celebrate 50 years since the creation of the Health & Safety Executive (the HSE). The 1974 Act effectively consolidated previous piecemeal legislation into a single Act applicable across all industries and encompassing a variety of employer and employee relationships, as well as the general public. It is hard to imagine the modern working world without the protection that it provides. Since 1975, the important role of enforcement of the duties imposed by the 1974 Act and educating businesses on their obligations is carried out by the HSE.
Fifty years on, the world continues to find new and innovative ways to create energy and fuel our evolving world, and as with all new technologies this comes with an increase in risk. As a result, legislation and how regulators enforce it must evolve too.
The Health and Safety Executive in action
The 1974 Act imposes an overarching duty on employers to ensure their employees’ health, safety and welfare so far as is reasonably practicable. It also protects the public from risks arising from workplace activities. On a day-to-day basis, HSE Inspectors are responsible for enforcing these duties. The powers of HSE Inspectors are therefore wide-ranging and important, for example, entering premises, interviewing people, ordering certain work to cease, machinery to be stopped, or seizing documents or equipment.
Most importantly, the HSE has the power to take enforcement action if its inspectors find that a business has breached its health and safety obligations. In England and Wales that extends to directly initiating criminal prosecutions. In Scotland the HSE works with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service when it considers that criminal proceedings are justified.
The HSE provides specialist Inspectors who have in-depth knowledge of specific sectors, and the specific demands, risks and challenges that each industry sector faces, including the energy sector. As a result of having specialist regulators and the huge body of regulations that flow from it, health and safety has become a proactive, fundamental part of working life rather than a retrospective reaction to an incident. The step-change that has been made in the UK is shown by recent statistics published by the HSE which confirm that in 1974, before the inception of the Act, 651 workers were killed at work. In 2023/2024 that number had reduced to 138. That is still too high a number, but it is right that from time to time we pause and recognise the huge progress that has been made, before turning again to face the challenges ahead.
What is on the horizon for safety in the energy sector?
Of the workplace deaths the HSE reports each year, falls from height remain the most common cause. With the increasing focus on the energy transition and the growth of onshore and offshore wind as Scotland’s preferred source of clean energy, it is of no surprise that the HSE is looking closely at wind farm operations. The risk associated with wind power was highlighted in a Fatal Accident Inquiry held last year which considered an incident in 2017 involving a worker falling from the top of a wind turbine, as well as during an HSE investigation when a turbine blade came off at a wind farm in East Ayrshire.
As part of its longer 10-year strategy, the HSE is also examining work-related ill health from depression, stress and anxiety. As a result of the recent work done by the IADC and the offshore industry more generally, it is recognised that offshore working in particular, carries a higher risk given workers are away from home for long periods, working in shifts or alone and facing increased stress due to the high-risk environment and the consequences of even the smallest of mistakes.
The challenge for regulators and businesses going forward is to recognise the pace of change and ensure that both the regulatory environment and operational policies and procedures also evolve at the same pace. That will require continued collaboration between industry and regulators. There is little doubt that the energy industry and the HSE will continue to work closely to address risks created by nascent technologies. A good example of this in action is the Winlaton Hydrogen Trial in 2022 where a town was used to test the possibility of using hydrogen blended natural gas in the gas network. The HSE was consulted and approved the trial which was successful in demonstrating that hydrogen could be safely used as fuel in a domestic setting in the future.
Half a century on, the HSE continues to provide protection for all types of work and modern ways of working that probably couldn’t have been imagined at the time of its inception.
Emma is an associate and health and safety law expert at Brodies LLP, for more information visit brodies.com
