HSE at 50: health and safety regulator marks milestone anniversary

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was established to enforce workplace health and safety legislation in the UK following the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which itself turned 50 on 31 July 2024.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was officially launched on 1 January 1975. Photograph: iStock/GMVozd

During the year the Act was born, there were 651 workplace fatalities in the UK. HSE’s latest annual figures, published in November, showed that this number had fallen to 138 in 2023/24.

In a New Year’s message published at the beginning of 2025, HSE chief executive Sarah Albon said the regulator had “led the way in establishing Great Britain as a safe place to work” over the last half century, and that its mission remains “as relevant as ever” as it looks ahead to the next 50 years.

“We’re proud of our successes over the last five decades, but the fact remains that any work-related death is a tragedy, and there are still far too many workers suffering ill health brought about by work activity,” said Albon. “It is hard to foresee what the world of work will look like in the next 50 years but, as ever, our fundamental principle will continue to be to make sure that those who create risk take responsibility for controlling risk, and those who fail to do so will be held to account.”

While the number of people killed at work has fallen dramatically since the mid-1970s, the 138 work-related fatalities recorded in 2023/24 represented an increase of two on the previous year’s figure. Work-related injuries were also up in 2023/24, compared with the previous year.

British Safety Council chief executive Mike Robinson has praised the important role that HSE has played in helping reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries since its creation, but says there is still a lot of work to do.

“As Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, HSE has played a key role in helping to bring down numbers of people killed or injured at work in the UK over the past half century, and should be recognised for its hard work in upholding the principles of the ground-breaking Health and Safety at Work Act 1974,” said Robinson. “However, while we celebrate this impressive achievement, we must acknowledge that there is still much work to do.

“In 2023/24, 138 people were still killed in the workplace, a rise on the previous year, and injuries were also up. Reversing this will require HSE to be given the resources it needs to ensure that there is no rowing back on the progress that has been made since the 1970s, and that the health, safety and wellbeing of workers continues to improve over the next 50 years.”