Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

The HSE is a UK government organization responsible for protecting the safety and health of the workforce. The HSE originated from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act of 1974, and is responsible for investigating industrial accidents, conducting research related to workplace safety, and providing guidance on safe work practices.

Most significantly, they also develop regulations that establish compliance requirements for employers. Select requirements under the HSE are listed below.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)

Under the 2013 RIDDOR regulations, employers and self-employed persons must report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases, and specified dangerous occurrences – otherwise known as “near hits,” “close calls,” or “near misses.” Getting these requirements right starts with having an efficient, barrier-free incident management system that allows fast entering and streamlined management of safety incidents. Giving your people the ability to report an event from anywhere at any time, including from a mobile device, will give you a compliance advantage.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is of course the foundation of good safety management practice, but it’s also a legal requirement under the HSE. All UK employers and self-employed persons must “make a suitable and sufficient assessment” of safety and health risks in the workplace. To have the best chance of meeting these obligations, employers need a that not only makes the job easier by facilitating assessments such as job safety analyses (JSAs), but also makes the completed work accessible to employees.

Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH)

HSE is one of five regulatory bodies working in partnership to enforce COMAH, a set of regulations intended to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances which implement the Seveso III Directive in the UK. Analogous to Process Safety Management (PSM) in the US, COMAH requires facilities storing certain highly hazardous chemicals above threshold amounts to implement safety measures to minimize the potential for accidents. Required measures include inspections, preventative maintenance, and written management of change (MOC) procedures.

Taking Ownership of Safety

Employers looking to meet their HSE requirements should remember that the focus shouldn’t be on just maintaining compliance, but on can promote better engagement with your EHS culture and give you the best chance to become the best EHS leader you can be. But you need to equip yourself for success. Spreadsheets and legacy electronic systems don’t give you the efficiency and visibility into your safety programs you need to maintain a healthy safety management system.

That’s why our VelocityEHS Accelerate^® Platform is a good fit for your needs, and helps you do EHS & ESG right. It lets you centralize your information – like incident reports, near-miss data, safety processes and MOC workflow approvals – so that you can more easily put it work for your EHS programs. You’ll get the insight you need to improve health, safety and environmental impacts with a real-time, global view of the operational risks in your workplace.