Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the domain www.hse.gov.uk and ancillary sites/domains except those listed. Here are links to the statements for those domains:

Using this website

The above websites are run by the Health and Safety Executive. We want as many people as possible to be able to use these websites. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We've also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
We have summarised the main points below:

How accessible these websites are

We know some parts of our websites aren’t fully accessible:

Most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
Live video streams and some of our existing videos don’t have captions
Microsites that have been developed by third party developers and are out of standard HSE template
Some images don't have alternative text of what the image shows
Some complex images and graphs may not be explained clearly to visually impaired users
New browser windows opening may not be announced to screen readers
Some carousels may not be fully accessible
Some time limits may not be adjustable
Interactive components may not be keyboard usable
On some pages heading may use incorrect HTML elements
Some content is not correctly held in sections
Some tables may not have headings
Tables may be used for layout
Some table headers require attributes
Some text may be held as images
Links or buttons do not have descriptive text
Some button labels may not be announced correctly to screen readers
Some input fields may have placeholders instead of labels
Text may have colour contrast issues
Pagination links may not announce themselves correctly
Screen readers may announce hidden content incorrectly
Some forms on this website are currently in MSOffice and PDF format and may not be fully accessible. These will be updated to accessible formats as soon as possible

There may be other undocumented issues present on this website or on ancillary domains. We are working to document and resolve these issues and will release them to the websites when they are complete.

If you require assistance with any of these issues then please contact [email protected]

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact [email protected]. We will review your request and get back to you in 21 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact [email protected] in the first instance.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us via our contact page: https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/index.htm

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

HSE is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Issues with images, video and audio

Live video streams do not have captions.

Whilst we understand that live video streams are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, we realise that this is still an important part of our web content. However, we will be focusing our efforts on increasing the accessibility of other areas first.

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

Some of our microsites and tools were developed out of the standard HSE website template and in some cases by third party developers and are therefore not completely compliant with WCAG 2.1.

Issues with documents and published PDFs

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

We have created a register of PDFs which are essential for service delivery and are working through these to create HTML pages and forms. This work will be completed by December 2022.

We understand that the regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, if they’re not essential to providing our services. However, if you need information in an alternative format, email [email protected].

Some PDFs that are covered by accessibility regulations do currently have issues. We are working to rectify these.

List of PDFs covered by the directive that have known issues (updated 1 March 2023)

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. We will ensure all essential PDFs are accessible or available in an alternative format upon request.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working to resolve all identified accessibility issues which are within our control and will release them as soon as solutions are available.

This website is tested by the Siteimprove Quality Assurance service and findings are reported to us every 5 days.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 1 March 2023 and will be reviewed again on or before 1 June 2023.

This website was last audited in March 2020. The audit was carried out by Panlogic UK using a combination of manual and automated testing across a representative sample of pages and template types.