The Health and Safety Executive’s protocol on receiving overseas visits from International Occupational Safety and Health Organisations

The Health and Safety Executive receive a large number of requests for meetings and visits from European and international delegations. Where possible HSE will accommodate visits in order to facilitate the exchange of information between governments and contribute to the improvement and promotion of health and safety within Great Britain and throughout the world.

We have three main sources where visit requests originate.

1. European Union Members, Accession and Candidate States, European Economic Area Members outside of the EU

These countries are considered priority for visits and requests are likely to be viewed favourably in order to share information.

Other EU member states

Candidate countries

European Economic Area (EEA) members outside of the EU

Assistance can be applied for through the Technical Assistance Information Exchange (TAIEX)

TAIEX is a European initiative to provide funding for short-term technical assistance to applicant countries. Requests come either from TAIEX in Brussels direct or via the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) who are the UK Contact Point. Requests are either for:

• Study visits to the UK
• Expert Speaker(s) to attend Workshops/Seminars in Applicant Countries. In this instance travel and accommodation are arranged and paid for by TAIEX and expert fees are paid by TAIEX.

For more information please email enquiries to international.visits@hse.gsi.gov.uk .

2. Non-EU countries

Most requests originate from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Russia – We welcome visits where the exchange of information can contribute to the achievement of HSC/E goals and promote the UK approach to health and safety as well as providing an equivalent mutual benefit to the visiting nation.

3. China

The Health and Safety Executive currently receives a great many requests from both the regional and central governments of China. As a result, in 2002, HSE and the State Administration of Work Safety of the People’s Republic of China (SAWS), through friendly consultation and with the intention of developing and extending knowledge in each country’s systems of occupational health and safety, agreed a Memorandum of Understanding. We are committed to making this protocol work; unfortunately that means that we cannot consider visits outside of the agreement. No visit outside of the ambit of this agreement will be granted. However, information about previous visits is available on request.

When we look at requests for visits we take the following into consideration :

• The applicant country
• The applicant organisation
• The frequency of visits they make
• The topics they wish to discuss
• The timing of the visit
• HSE’s available resources

HSE’s International Unit coordinates requests for assistance and visits. Some visits may span the different Directorates and specialist areas across HSE, depending on the area of interest.

Once a Visit has been accepted

For it to be possible for HSE to accept a visit, there should be a period of 6 weeks between the acceptance and the date of the visit. This allows time for internal consultation and the assignment of resources within HSE to ensure that the aims of the meeting are met fully.

It should be noted that HSE usually restrict visits to groups of no more than six people and we are not able to provide interpreters. Additionally we are not able to make travel arrangements for visitors.

You should note that most of HSE's policy and specialist staff are based at our headquarters on Merseyside, north-west England. You will need to make arrangements to travel there for your visit unless we tell you otherwise.