🇬🇧 Live Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS

UK Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Imposes general duties on employers and employees to ensure health, safety, and welfare at work in the UK.

View official source document

Rules extracted

Obligations decomposed

4.0x

Avg obligations per rule

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Jurisdiction

About this regulation

Primary UK workplace safety legislation — duties on employers, employees, and others to ensure health, safety and welfare at work. Establishes the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), provides for enforcement through inspectors, improvement and prohibition notices, and sets out criminal offences for non-compliance.

What AuditDSS covers

Source

Regulation

Extracted

Rules

Decomposed

Obligations

4.0x

Decomposition ratio

Each rule is decomposed into an average of 4.0 atomic obligations — the smallest testable units that can be independently violated.

Fully extracted & scored

All 40 obligations have been decomposed, titled, risk-scored, and embedded for semantic matching.

Risk scoring

Every obligation in HSWA 1974 is scored across independent risk dimensions:

Obligation Weight

How critical within the regulatory framework

Violation Likelihood

How often breached in practice

Enforcement Evidence

Regulator enforcement history and penalties

Cascade Dependency

How many obligations depend on this one

Regulatory details

Full title: UK Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
Regulatory body: Health and Safety Executive
Jurisdiction: 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Document type: act
Effective date: July 31, 1974
Issuing authority: UK Parliament
Industry: Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS
Official source: View source document ↗

Who this applies to

employersemployeesself-employedcontrollers of premisesmanufacturerssuppliers

Key requirements

General duty of employers: ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees
Duty to non-employees: conduct undertakings in such a way that persons not in employment are not exposed to risks to their health or safety
Risk assessment and safe systems of work: prepare and maintain a written health and safety policy statement, organisation, and arrangements
Information, instruction, training and supervision: provide employees with necessary information, instruction, training and supervision for safe working
Reporting and enforcement: comply with improvement and prohibition notices issued by HSE inspectors, and report injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences under RIDDOR

Frequently asked questions about HSWA 1974

What is HSWA 1974?

Who does HSWA 1974 apply to?

HSWA 1974 applies to employers, employees, self-employed, controllers of premises, manufacturers, suppliers.

How many obligations does HSWA 1974 contain?

AuditDSS has decomposed HSWA 1974 into 40 atomic obligations from 10 rules. Each obligation is independently testable and risk-scored.

What are the key requirements of HSWA 1974?

The key requirements include: General duty of employers: ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees, Duty to non-employees: conduct undertakings in such a way that persons not in employment are not exposed to risks to their health or safety, Risk assessment and safe systems of work: prepare and maintain a written health and safety policy statement, organisation, and arrangements, Information, instruction, training and supervision: provide employees with necessary information, instruction, training and supervision for safe working, Reporting and enforcement: comply with improvement and prohibition notices issued by HSE inspectors, and report injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences under RIDDOR.

How can I assess my HSWA 1974 compliance?

Upload your compliance policy to AuditDSS. The platform maps your document against all 40 HSWA 1974 obligations using deterministic AI scoring — not checklists or LLM summaries. You get a risk-scored gap analysis showing exactly which obligations are covered, partially covered, or missing.

Which jurisdiction enforces HSWA 1974?

HSWA 1974 is enforced in United Kingdom by Health and Safety Executive.

When did HSWA 1974 come into effect?

HSWA 1974 became effective on July 31, 1974.

What industry does HSWA 1974 apply to?

HSWA 1974 is primarily relevant to the Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS industry. AuditDSS covers 45 regulations in this industry sector.

Build a HSWA 1974 compliance pack

Don't have a compliance policy yet? AuditDSS generates a complete compliance pack for HSWA 1974 — alone or combined with other regulations your business needs. Every clause is mapped to specific obligations.

Policy

High-level commitments and governance framework covering HSWA 1974 requirements.

Procedures

Step-by-step operational procedures to implement each policy commitment.

Forms & checklists

Ready-to-use forms, registers, and checklists for day-to-day compliance operations.

Multi-regulation

Combine HSWA 1974 with other regulations into a single unified compliance pack for your business.

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Already have a policy? Assess it against HSWA 1974

Upload your document

Upload your compliance policy, program manual, or operational document. AuditDSS accepts any text-based document.

AI maps against 40 obligations

Your document is scored against every obligation in HSWA 1974. Each claim is mapped to the obligation tree and evaluated for coverage.

Risk-scored gap report

Receive every gap ranked by risk priority with remediation guidance, enforcement evidence, and cascade impact analysis.