The Health and Safety at Work Act 40 Years On

Thursday, 21st August 2014

This summer marks the 40th anniversary since the ‘Health and Safety at Work etc Act, 1974’ received Royal Assent. This piece of legislation is arguably one of the most successful on the statue books. It is often misunderstood and misrepresented but there is no doubt it has protected millions of workers across the UK since its inception in August 1974.

Recent figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that in 1974 more than 650 people lost their lives every year at work compared to a record low of 133 today. The numbers of non-fatal injuries at work have also fallen in the same time period from 336,701 40 years ago to 78,222 now. This equates to a 75% decrease which is quite a remarkable shift over a relatively short period of time.

Before the 1974 Act there was hundreds of different regulations with some industries swamped by ‘rules’ and others with little or no regulation at all. It was very clear that something had to be done to standardise workplace health and safety guidance across Britain.

The person government commissioned to do this was Alfred Robens a trade unionist, labour politician and industrialist. Robens selected Barbara Castle to chair a committee on workplace health and safety in 1969 in the wake of the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster. This led to the 1972 Robens Report which in turn resulted in the 1974 Act.

The Act that emerged swept away detailed and prescriptive industry rules and instead created a flexible system where regulations and guidance notes describe the goals and principles supported by codes of professional practice and expert’s guidelines.

The UK workplace has changed very dramatically over the last 40 years gone is much of the heavy industry and manufacturing replaced with service industries in the main but the 1974 Act remains as relevant today as it did then and the UK is now one of the safest countries to work in the world – an achievement that should be applauded.