Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ratification: 1949)

2. Criteria for the investigation of accidents. The Committee notes the TUC’s indication that the latest published version of the criteria for mandatory investigation of incidents was produced in 2014 and specifically reduced the number of incidents that HSE would need to investigate. This approach was a direct response to resource challenges. Internally, the HSE is now producing new criteria designed to further reduce the number of incidents requiring investigation. This has been the direct consequence of teams being insufficiently resourced to fulfil the expectations set by the publicly available criteria. In addition, the TUC indicates that operationally the HSE will no longer investigate as a matter of course any incident less serious than a fatality. The Government replies that: (i) the HSE has been developing a new risk-based decision model (RBDM) to assist with selecting non-fatal reports of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences only for investigation. The model is designed to select those non-fatal incidents where the greatest risks exist, and which will allow the HSE to better target its resources to closing the risk gap and securing compliance with the law; (ii) selecting incidents based on risk, rather than harm outcome, is more aligned with the principles of health and safety legislation; (iii) relevant non-fatal reports not selected for investigation will be used as information that will assist in targeting proactive inspections; (iv) the RBDM for non-fatal safety reports will be implemented in the next financial work year 2024/25; and (v) other reported incidents will continue to be selected using the 2014 Incident Selection Criteria. The Committee requests the Government to provide further information on the implementation of the new risk-based decision model, and statistics of the injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences reported to the inspectorate, as well as the number of investigations undertaken in relation to those reports, disaggregated by sector if possible. It also requests the Government to identify the number of investigations resulting from non-fatal incidents where the greatest risks exist, as well as the number of non-fatal reports not selected for investigation.

3. Strategies for compliance in lower-risk small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In reply to the Committee’s previous comment, the Government indicates that the HSE published new guidance on risk management and risk assessment for SMEs in 2019. The new guidance performed well, scoring a ‘usefulness’ rating of 82 per cent. In 2023, the HSE has taken this work a stage further by improving its guidance on health and safety management for SMEs. This includes new “Introduction to Health and Safety Management” webpages which take SMEs through HSE’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” model in a way that is proportionate to smaller, low-risk businesses, and that offer guidance on controlling common health and safety risks and advice on providing the right workplace facilities and protecting vulnerable workers. This new guidance was published on 25 April 2023 and is still undergoing testing and evaluation. The Government also indicates that almost all HSE’s Construction Division regulatory activities are directed at SMEs, given their preponderance in the construction industry. In addition, when the HSE designs its high-risk sectors inspection campaigns, it addresses risk and not size of undertaking in selecting premises to visit. However, in most cases when dealing with manufacturing, construction, and agricultural sectors the HSE does so in full knowledge that most of its inspections will be to SMEs. The Committee also notes the TUC’s indication that the algorithms used to direct inspection activity rely largely on information already available on HSE’s systems. This fact means that the system is blind to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The Government replies that the third-party business database utilised by the HSE contains information on all businesses within the UK irrespective of their size and so the HSE is not ‘blind’ to micro businesses or SMEs. The HSE also has visiting officers who visit businesses to assess compliance and while they are out visiting sites they are asked, as part of their role, to gather intelligence on other businesses HSE may not be aware of. The HSE does spend the correct amount of resource trying to improve its understanding of the business landscape and businesses will often come to HSE’s attention through other routes such as employee concerns or concerns from a member of the public, which can all be made anonymously to the HSE. The Committee takes note of this information.

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Article 3(1)(a), (b) and (2) of the Convention. Additional functions entrusted to labour inspectors. Control of registration of employment vacancies and issuance of work permits. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the Government´s indication that there have been no major legislative or other measures affecting the application of the Convention since the last report. The Committee requests once again that the Government take specific measures to ensure that any functions assigned to labour inspectors to monitor registration of employment vacancies and work permits, or issue penalty notices related to such registration, do not interfere with the main objective of labour inspectors to secure the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers as required under Article 3(1) of the Convention. It also once again requests the Government to provide information on the time and resources spent on labour inspection activities in these areas compared to activities spent on securing the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers.

Articles 10, 14, 16, 20 and 21. Number of labour inspectors and coverage of inspections. Annual labour inspection reports. Notification of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease to the labour inspectorate. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government, in response to its previous request, on labour inspection activities carried out during the fiscal years 2020–21 to 2022–23. The Committee notes with interest the increase in the number of labour inspectors, from three in 2019 to seventeen in 2022. It notes, however, that despite the increase in the number of visits during the fiscal year 2022–23, the total number of visits remains significantly lower than that observed between 2017 and 2019 (from 495 visits in 2017–18 and 314 in 2018–19 to 9 visits in 2020–21, 36 in 2021–22 and 112 in 2022–23). It also notes that the labour inspectorate identified 16 violations and imposed no fines in the 2020–21 financial year, 2 violations with 2 fines in 2021–22, and 22 violations with no fines in 2022–23. With regard to industrial accidents, the Committee notes that 70 minor and 15 major accidents were reported to the labour inspectorate in 2020–21, 43 minor and 10 major accidents in 2021–22 and 55 minor and 25 major accidents in 2022–23, and finally that no cases of occupational diseases were reported during the same three-year period. The Committee once again requests that the Government provide detailed information on the manner in which labour inspection activities are carried out with respect to occupational safety and health (OSH) issues, as well as statistical information on the number of labour inspections performed in the areas of OSH and working conditions. Noting the report of no occupational diseases over a three-year period, the Committee also requests that the Government provide detailed information on measures taken to ensure the notification of cases of occupational diseases to the labour inspectorate, in accordance with Article 14. Finally, the Committee requests once again that the Government indicate whether annual labour inspection reports containing the statistics provided by the Government are published in accordance with Article 20(2) of the Convention.

Article 12(1) and (2). Right of inspectors to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes that the Government does not provide any information on the exercise by inspectors in practice of the power to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection. Therefore, the Committee once again requests that the Government provide information on the exercise by inspectors in practice of the powers provided for in section 17(1)(a) and (d) of the Employment Act, including further information on the requirement to obtain written authority from the Director, the modalities for obtaining this authority, including if a separate request is required before each inspection. The Committee also once again requests the Government to indicate whether labour inspectors entrusted with supervising compliance with the Factories Act are empowered to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection, in accordance with Article 12(1) of the Convention.

In addition, the Committee recalls the pending comment regarding the Labour Administration Convention, 1978 (No. 150), adopted by the Committee in 2019, for which the Government will be requested to reply in 2026 in accordance with the reporting cycle.