Health and safety

Health and safety

Health and safety is a complex area of law which not only has its own legal specialism, but also filters into many other areas of law, including employment.

The material in the health and safety topic gives an overview of the main areas of health and safety law that are likely to be encountered by employment lawyers and with which most employment lawyers will need some degree of familiarity. It also highlights in more detail particular issues, such as smoking in the workplace, on which many employment lawyers will be asked to advise on a regular basis.

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) website is a useful source of further detailed guidance on many of the issues covered in our health and safety topic.

Legislative framework

Health and safety in the workplace involves two different branches of the law—criminal law and civil law. The interplay between the two areas, including the compliance issues and main obligations are set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA 1974).

Safety and the risk to safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

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Latest Employment News

Employment weekly highlights—5 June 2025

This edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) an analysis of the recent immigration White Paper by Ben Maitland of Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law, (2) an analysis of reforms to reduce discrimination in the Local Government Pension Scheme by David Gallagher and Daniel Fowler at Fieldfisher, (3) an EAT decision that a claimant’s aversion to wearing a mask lacked the necessary cogency, seriousness, and cohesion to qualify as a protected philosophical belief, (4) an ET decision that a teacher’s dismissal was not the result of her whistleblowing over the school’s policy on trans children, (5) an analysis of a Court of Appeal decision that UK gender recognition certificates do not allow gender to be recorded as non-binary by Harini Iyengar at 11KBW, (6) a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research on the challenges surrounding surveillance in the workplace, (7) the publication of the latest UK Stewardship Code by the Financial Reporting Council, (8) new guidance and legislation on amendments to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, (9) a successful appeal to the EAT against a ‘gisting order’ in an unfair dismissal claim amid national security concerns, (10) two new Practice Notes on providing toilet, washing and changing facilities in the workplace following the Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers, and on the right to disconnect produced in partnership with Rosie Moore and Simon Swaine of Lewis Silkin, (11) dates for your diary, and (12) other news items of interest to employment practitioners.

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