Divisional health and safety bulletins

HSE has previously produced safety alerts, notices and advice for specific industry sectors, the links below will take you to the appropriate industry-specific safety bulletin.

• Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH): COMAH applies mainly to the chemical industry, but also to some storage activities, explosives and nuclear sites, and other industries where threshold quantities of dangerous substances identified in the Regulations are kept or used. A good example of a COMAH site would be the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

• Offshore Division (OD): The offshore oil and gas industry is a dynamic, rapidly changing industry but with an ageing infrastructure and increasing cost pressures as the available oil and gas declines. These issues, together with the geographically isolated workforce, and the inherent hazards in working offshore, require high standards of management of health and safety.

• Mines: HSE Mines Inspectorate is currently responsible for the health and safety of approximately 137 sites operating within Great Britain including 26 licensed underground coal mines employing around 5600 people and 31 opencast coal sites.

• Field Operations Directorate (FOD): This directorate is responsible for all queries and complaints relating to a broad spectrum of occupations.  These include the manufacturing industry, education establishments, the health service and local authority premises. However, FOD do not cover such places as general office environments and retail and food establishments, which are the responsibility of the local authority.

• Trading Standards: Although Trading Standards is not part of HSE there is a certain level of overlap in responsibilities and therefore a need for co-operation between HSE and Trading Standard Officers within the local government framework.  The Trading Standards central office is solely responsible for their own investigations and any information they might post on their website. However, we felt it would be helpful if you could access their website from this page