4. How HSE enforces
If you contact us about a concern with GB REACH we:
- will acknowledge that we have received the information
- may ask you for more information
- will transfer any case to the relevant enforcing authority if it not for HSE - it will speed up the process if you can try to identify and contact the correct enforcing authority directly
- will triage the incident / concern where HSE is the enforcing authority and establish a proposed course of action
- will assign a priority to the incident / concern - cases are actioned in priority order
- will inform you of our decisions - this may take some time depending on available resources and the depth of the investigation required
- cannot provide details or updates relating to ongoing investigations unless there have been significant developments
HSE may not be able to investigate everything that is reported to us - we have to prioritise according to the severity of hazard and risk of harm to persons, animals and the environment. We will focus the majority of our resource on:
- the incidents that give rise to the greatest risk
- the issues or duty holders that cause us the greatest concern
As part of an inspection or investigation we may:
- contact the duty holder for information - this may include requiring the duty holder to provide documentation or samples of products / active substances
- visit the duty holder - we may or may not tell a duty holder of our intention to visit
- purchase the duty holder's products online - we may do this covertly
- use our enforcement powers, such as those to:
- enter premises
- seize evidence - including taking measurements, photographs, recordings and samples
- serve notices – for example improvement notices and prohibition notices
- prosecute offenders
More information on the principles of HSE's investigations can be found on our central enforcement pages.