Better Regulation
Regulating for results
HSE is fully committed to ensuring that regulations are fair and effective for everyone. Regulations are needed to protect people at work: but to avoid unnecessary burdens on business, it is important to strike the right balance. To ensure that HSE fulfils this aim, it has undertaken various projects including:
- Outcome of the HSE Board discussion on the Better Regulation Executive/National Audit Office report on HSE's Hampton Implementation Review.
Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE has written to BRE/NAO saying:
"The Board of the HSE considered the attached paper on the Better Regulation Executive/National Audit Office (BRE/NAO) report on HSE's Hampton Implementation Review at its April meeting and decided that the paper would become HSE's official response to the Review.
HSE had already identified many of the areas for improvement that the report highlighted and the Board expressed its satisfaction with the progress that officials have already made in addressing them. Any further work that has been suggested will be taken into account as HSE develops its new strategy for health and safety in Great Britain for the next five years and beyond. The new strategy will be published towards the end of this year.
The Board wishes to thank BRE and NAO for the work they have done in conducting the review and in producing the report."
- Regulators' Compliance Code
As a transparent and accountable regulator with a clear focus on tackling the key causes of injury and ill-health at work, HSE recognises the need for regulators to achieve their regulatory objectives without imposing unnecessary burdens on those they regulate, as envisaged in the Government’s statutory code of practice for regulators (the Regulators’ Compliance Code). We have published a short statement setting out how our Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS), developed in the mid 1990s, and other high-level policies meet the obligations set out in the Code. These policies ensure HSE follows a risk-based, proportionate and targeted approach - consequently, no changes were needed to the way HSE regulates and enforces health and safety at work when the Code came into force on 6 April 2008.
- HSE’s Simplification Plan
HSE’s simplification plan contains initiatives which will: reduce unnecessary paperwork requirements on business, consolidate regulation where necessary, and deliver the wider better regulation agenda.
- Risk Management
Risk management is about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering – not bureaucratic back covering. HSE is driving forward sensible risk management including revised guidance on risk assessment to make clearer to businesses what is - and is not expected of them.
- Legislation
A list of all the regulation HSE owns helping business quickly find out what legislation relates to their industry. Each piece of legislation links to relevant guidance contained on HSE’s website and, wherever possible, links to the full text of the legislation on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website.
- Proposals from Stakeholders
HSE has been participating in a Better Regulation Executive initiative encouraging stakeholders to submit their suggestions on where red tape and bureaucracy can be removed or reduced in regulations. If you have any suggestions please submit them using the guidance available on the Better Regulation Executive website.
For further information on the Government’s better regulation agenda, please visit Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's Better Regulation Executive website.
