Complaints about workplace health and safety

The law requires employers and the self-employed to conduct their business in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons affected are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. This includes providing essential welfare facilities for employees.

You can find out what the health and safety law requires by searching our website, start by looking under the relevant topic or industry section.

If you consider that your employer (or someone else’s) work activity is putting your safety at risk or damaging your health, then you should raise your concerns with that employer or person. If no improvement is made and your safety or health continues to be at risk, then you can report your complaint to the relevant enforcing authority and ask them to look into it.

Firstly, HSE can only take action on a complaint if:

1. It relates to a work activity.
2. HSE is the right enforcing authority for the work.
3. The issue complained about is sufficiently specific to enable identification of the issue and the dutyholder and/or location and that either:
4. The issue complained about has caused or has potential to cause significant harm, or alleges the denial of basic employee welfare facilities,
5. It appears to constitute a significant breach of law for which HSE is the enforcing authority.

Therfore HSE cannot deal with complaints about issues or employers where we have no jurisdiction and where we receive such complaints, we will take no further action. The following section should help you identify whether HSE is the correct enforcing authority and then tell you what to do next.

Is HSE the correct enforcing authority for you?

HSE is responsible for enforcing health and safety at workplaces including:

• factories
• farms
• building sites
• nuclear installations
• mines
• schools and colleges
• fairgrounds
• gas, electricity and water systems
• hospitals and nursing homes
• central and local government premises
• offshore installations

You should contact your local authority environmental health department if your complaint is about the following type of premises:

• offices (except government offices)
• shops
• hotels
• restaurants
• leisure premises
• nurseries and playgroups
• pubs and clubs
• museums (privately owned)
• places of worship
• sheltered accommodation and care homes

Other enforcing authorities that cover specific areas:

Concern	Enforcing body
Poor food hygiene	Environmental Health Department (Local Authority)
Pollution, including nuisance noise	Environmental Health (Local Authority)
Problems with goods and services you have bought	Trading Standards (Local Authority)
Road, highways and pavements	Highways Department (Local Authority)
Unstable/dangerous buildings	Building Control (Local Authority)
Road traffic issues	Police
Roadworthiness of vehicles	Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA)
Railway safety	Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)
Waste disposal, contaminated ground, some air pollution issues	Environment Agency
Treatment of patients in the NHS in England	Patient Advisory Liaison Services
Care of patients and users of health and social care services in England	Care Quality Commission
Care of patients in health services in Scotland	Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Care of patients in health services in Wales	Healthcare Inspectorate Wales
Care of users of social care services in Scotland	Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland
Care of users of social care services in Wales	Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales
Employment issues, including bullying and harassment at work	Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)
Repairs of council owned property	Ombudsman

• Contact details for these Enforcing bodies

How can you resolve your concerns?

If you are an employee and you think the law is being broken, or minimum standards are ignored within your workplace, you can:

• speak to your employer and try to resolve the issue; and/or
• contact your work/safety representative, or your trade union safety representative who can try to resolve the issue for you.

If the matter is not satisfactorily resolved, you can raise it with the relevant enforcing authority.

If you are a member of the public and you think a person’s health and safety is being put at risk, you can directly contact their employer to raise your concern with them.

Reporting your complaint about workplace health and safety to HSE

Remember, HSE is not responsible for enforcing health and safety in all workplaces. So double check the last section to make sure that it is HSE who is responsible for enforcing health and safety in the workplace that you are concerned about. If you do wish to report your complaint to HSE please complete the form below.

Please note you will be asked to provide:

• your name, address and contact details;
• the name and address of the workplace or activity you are concerned about;
• a description of your concern, including who is at risk and why, if the risk is happening now, how long it is likely to go on for, how often it happens and when and where any incident occurred; and
• details about what you have done to try and resolve the issue.

What happens after a complaint is made to HSE?

First, we will check that the complaint relates to a work activity where HSE is responsible for enforcing the health and safety legislation. Then we will seek to identify from the information you provided:

• Who is responsible for health and safety at the location of the complaint?
• Who is at risk of injury or ill health or has no adequate welfare facilities?
• What injury or ill health could result and how likely is this?

A complaints officer will then assess your complaint and place it into one of the following categories:

• Red = Serious Risk and a complaints officer will follow it up as a high priority within 24 hours of receipt (or it will be passed to an inspector for an on-site investigation)
• Amber = Significant Risk and a complaints officer will follow it up within 5 days of receipt
• Green = Low Risk and it will not be followed-up by HSE

However, if your complaint relates to an industry classed by HSE as a major hazard industry - such as offshore, nuclear or a major chemical site - then it will be assessed by an inspector and assigned a priority appropriate to the circumstances.

What we will do

We may ask the employer to investigate your complaint or we may look into it ourselves. However, we cannot successfully follow up your 'red' or 'amber' complaint if, from the information you provided, we are not able to identify or establish who is responsible for the work that you have complained about from the information you provided. In such situations, this will be recorded as a "matter of concern" and no action will automatically be taken. However, if the "matter of concern" has been assessed as "red" it will be reviewed by an inspector.

The other situations where HSE will not investigate your complaint are:

• when you make a complaint anonymously to HSE or withhold contact details. This is because we are not able to substantiate or discuss the information with you or ensure that it is not a malicious complaint
• when you have not raised the issue with the person responsible for health and safety or your trade union - unless, of course, you have good reason to believe you would be placed in a vulnerable position if you did raise your concerns with this person
• when there are no reasonably practicable precautions to deal with the matters that you raised
• when it is impracticable to pursue your complaint

HSE cannot help you get compensation or resolve problems of civil law.

How will you know what has happened as a result of your complaint?

If you want feedback, we will contact you and let you know what we have done. Or, if we have assessed your complaint as low risk 'green' we will explain our decision.