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Improving Outcomes from Health and Safety

This Better Regulation Executive (BRE) review reported in August 2008. It suggests ways to make it easier for businesses to comply with the rules, while reducing injury and ill-health and increasing public confidence in the UK’s health and safety regime as a whole.

What is this review about?

The review was asked to consider how the health and safety regulatory regime affects workplaces where the overall risk of injury or ill-health is relatively low, focusing in particular on low risk smaller businesses. It sought to understand the experiences of small businesses, and the impact of the many different influences on them.

What does the review recommend?

The review makes six recommendations. They are designed to:

• improve health and safety outcomes, primarily by improving information and advice, so making businesses more aware of their obligations, and making it easier for them to know what – and what not – to do in all of the regulatory areas they associate with health and safety;
• save businesses in scope almost £300 million pa in unnecessary administrative and consultancy costs;
• increase public confidence in health and safety by further challenging inaccurate media coverage and promoting positive messages about health and safety; and
• target overall inspection resource at workplaces where the risk of injury or ill-health is highest by encouraging further joint working between HSE and local authorities.

Implementing the recommendations

The review reported to Government in August 2008. HSE, LACORS, LBRO and BERR are amongst the organisations now taking the recommendations forward.

The review report is available at:

Improving outcomes from health and safety: a report to Government by the Better Regulation Executive (828KB)

Perceptions of the health and safety regime: summary report prepared by Vanilla Research for the Better Regulation Executive (470KB)