HASAWA Explained: Employer Duties Under the Health and Safety at Work Act

A plain-English guide to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — the duties it places on employers, what "reasonably practicable" means, and what HSE inspectors check.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — usually shortened to HASAWA or the HSW Act — is the foundation of every workplace safety duty in Great Britain. More than fifty years after it became law, it still defines who is responsible for keeping people safe at work, what employers must do, and how the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities enforce those duties. If you employ anyone, run a site, or control premises where work takes place, HASAWA applies to you.

This guide breaks down the parts of the Act that matter most in day-to-day operations: the general duties under Sections 2, 3, 7 and 8, the meaning of "so far as is reasonably practicable", what inspectors typically look for, and the practical steps that keep your organisation on the right side of enforcement.

Section 2 — duties to your own employees

Section 2 of HASAWA places a general duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. That headline duty is then broken down into specific obligations, including: providing and maintaining safe plant and systems of work; arrangements for the safe use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances; the information, instruction, training and supervision needed for employees to work safely; a safe place of work with safe access and egress; and a working environment that is safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards welfare facilities.

Section 2(3) requires any employer with five or more employees to prepare a written health and safety policy, keep it up to date, and bring it to the attention of their workforce. Sections 2(4) to 2(7) underpin consultation with employees and recognised safety representatives — a duty expanded by the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996.

Section 3 — duties to people who are not your employees

Section 3 extends the employer's reach beyond their own payroll. You must conduct your undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that people who are not your employees are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. In practice that captures contractors and their workers, visitors, members of the public near your site, tenants, students, patients and service users.

Section 3 is the duty most often cited in prosecutions involving the public — falling objects from scaffolding, vehicles striking pedestrians, asbestos disturbance during refurbishment, or contractors injured by an undisclosed hazard. If you control the work, the courts expect you to control the risk it creates for everyone in the vicinity.

Sections 7 and 8 — duties on employees themselves

HASAWA is not only an employer duty. Section 7 requires every employee to take reasonable care for their own health and safety and that of others affected by their acts or omissions at work, and to co-operate with their employer so far as is necessary to enable the employer to comply with their statutory duties. Section 8 makes it an offence for any person — employee or otherwise — to intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare.

Briefing the workforce on these personal duties is part of meeting your own Section 2(2)(c) duty to provide information, instruction and training. They should sit explicitly in your induction, toolbox talks and disciplinary policy.

What "so far as is reasonably practicable" actually means

Almost every general duty in HASAWA is qualified by the phrase "so far as is reasonably practicable". It is not the same as "physically possible" and it is not a get-out clause. The test, established in Edwards v National Coal Board [1949] and applied ever since, is that the level of risk must be weighed against the sacrifice — in money, time and trouble — needed to control it. If the sacrifice is grossly disproportionate to the risk, the control measure is not reasonably practicable. If it is not, the control measure must be implemented.

In practice this means risk assessment is the engine of compliance. You identify the hazard, evaluate who could be harmed and how seriously, weigh the cost and effort of available controls against that risk, and document the decision. Section 40 of the Act also reverses the burden of proof in prosecutions: once the prosecution shows the duty applied, it is for the defendant to prove that doing more was not reasonably practicable.

What HSE inspectors look at

During an inspection — whether routine, proactive or following a complaint or incident — inspectors typically work through a consistent checklist. Expect them to ask for: a current written health and safety policy signed and dated by a senior director; up-to-date risk assessments for the main hazards on site; evidence that those assessments translate into safe systems of work, method statements and permits where appropriate; training records for the people doing the work, including refreshers; maintenance and inspection records for plant, equipment, LEV, lifting equipment and pressure systems; arrangements for consultation with employees; and records of incidents, near misses and any RIDDOR reports.

Inspectors also walk the site. Tidy paperwork is not enough — what they see on the shop floor, scaffold or factory line must match what the policy claims. Inconsistencies between documented controls and observed practice are one of the most common triggers for enforcement notices.

Common failings that lead to enforcement

The patterns behind Improvement Notices, Prohibition Notices and prosecutions are remarkably consistent. The most frequent are: no written policy, or a policy that has not been reviewed in years; generic risk assessments downloaded from the internet rather than tailored to the actual task and site; missing or expired training for high-risk activities such as working at height, confined spaces, manual handling, and use of mobile plant; no competent person appointed under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; failure to consult employees or to act on issues they raise; poor contractor management — bringing third parties on site without checking their competence, RAMS or insurance; and inadequate accident reporting, including missed RIDDOR notifications.

Each of these failings maps directly back to a Section 2 or Section 3 duty. Inspectors do not need to find an injury to take action; the risk of harm is enough.

Practical next steps

If you want to be confident that HASAWA is being met across your organisation, focus on five practical actions. First, refresh your written health and safety policy and make sure the named roles and responsibilities still reflect who actually does what. Second, audit your risk assessments — every significant hazard should have a current, task-specific assessment with named control measures. Third, check training records against the work being done and close any gaps before the inspector does. Fourth, formalise contractor management with a competence check, RAMS review and induction for everyone coming on site. Fifth, appoint a competent person — internal or external — to give you the access to specialist advice the Management Regulations require.

HASAWA is broad on purpose. It was designed to be flexible enough to cover every workplace from a one-person workshop to a national infrastructure project. That flexibility is also why most enforcement action is preventable: the duties are clear, the test is proportionate, and the controls are well understood.

If you would like an independent review of your current health and safety arrangements against HASAWA and the regulations that sit underneath it, Law Safety Services provides competent health and safety advice, policy development, risk assessment and ongoing compliance support across the UK. Get in touch to arrange an initial conversation.