Improved HSE guidance on managing health and safety and controlling risk

HSE has improved its guidance on managing health and safety and controlling risks for businesses. 

There are no changes to legal requirements, but the new design and structure will help you quickly find and understand what your business must do to comply with health and safety law.   

The improvements are based on research which showed businesses felt some guidance was: 

• hard to understand, making it time-consuming to find the area relevant to them​ 
• long and complex, leaving them uncertain that they had the full answer​ 

We have substantially removed duplication and replaced various publications with more accessible webpages. This will save you time and resource searching for the fundamental pieces of guidance your business needs.  

The guidance stresses the importance of not only controlling risks but making sure they stay controlled. It also offers easy-to-follow guides on controlling common health and safety risks as well as advice on providing the right workplace facilities and protecting vulnerable workers.  

Main improvements

The improvements include a new, brief guide providing an introduction to managing health and safety. This will help you:  

• understand what managing health and safety means  
• find the right guidance for your business
• use the Plan, Do, Check, Act approach to manage health and safety in a way that is simple and proportionate to your risks, while still complying with the law  

We have listened to feedback and incorporated a new feature that allow you the option of easily printing off these webpages. 

We now offer easy-to-follow common workplace risks guidance, so you can quickly find specific advice on the risks in your workplace.

A new managing health and safety collection page will help you find the right guidance whether you are a:  

• small or low-risk business 
• leader or manager overseeing your organisation’s arrangements 
• director or board member leading on health and safety  

A new microsite on workplace, health, safety and welfare brings guidance together on legal duties such as ventilation, temperature, safety signs and emergency procedures.

Let us know your thoughts

We would appreciate your views on our introduction to managing health and safety in our new guidance structure.  

We have created a short survey which should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. It will enable you to let us know your thoughts on the changes that have been made. Take part in the survey