The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 , also referred to as HASAW or HSW, is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in the United Kingdom.

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment.

The full text of the Act is available to purchase from the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI). It can also be downloaded free of charge from this site.

Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 [560kb]

This is current at September 2006. Please see the Disclaimer.

Statutory instruments are the secondary types of legislation made under specific Acts of Parliament.

These cover a wide range of subjects, from control of asbestos at work, diving, escape and rescue from mines, ionising radiation and working at height.

See Legislation enforced by HSE for more details.

Need further legal advice?

If you need further advice on legal matters concerning the workplace, please contact HSE Infoline or consult Sources of information and external advisory services.

This information has been taken from http://www.hse.gov.uk

Disclaimer

The information on this site is regularly updated and checked for accuracy and completeness.

However it is important to note that legal information must be used with a degree of caution.

Users must be aware that whilst an Act or Statutory Instrument (SI) may still be in force, parts may have been superseded by later legislation or completely withdrawn.

If you use a printed or online version of an Act or Statutory Instrument this will generally be in the form that it was originally produced.

Any withdrawn or amended sections will still be contained within the Act or SI and there will be nothing in the document to identify those sections that no longer apply.

Solutions available to you

There are several solutions which you can try:

• Seek advice from HSE Infoline.
• Use a service such as hsedirect which will provide the legislation with all changes suitably identified.
• Seek independent legal advice.