The UK Health and Safety Executive’s scientific laboratory is a founder member of PEROSH.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates workplace health and safety in Great Britain through a risk-based, goal-setting regulatory framework that has helped make Britain one of the safest places in the world to work. HSE’s scientists and analysts provide high-quality evidence that informs and underpins HSE’s regulatory regime and are vital for ensuring effective and proportionate risk management that protects workers and safeguards the public while enabling productivity, innovation and growth.
For case studies showing how our delivery of science and analysis is being used to improve health and safety at work, see our Annual Science Reviews.
Our Science and Evidence Strategy 2016-2010 is at the heart of HSE’s approach to developing the evidence base in support of our regulatory and policy In this strategy, HSE’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Andrew Curran, sets out our approach:
“For over a hundred years, HSE (and its forerunners) has invested in science, evidence and analysis to understand risks to health and safety and how to control them. The lessons we learn from investigating major incidents, the cutting-edge evidence we generate and synthesise from applied health and safety research, and our work to address challenges from new working practices and to develop the evidence base to enable safe introduction of new technologies, are a vital contribution to the health and safety system. We rigorously prioritise our scientific investment to maximise our impact on work-related health and safety and ensure that we use robust, best available evidence to underpin our regulatory policy and operations. We use networks and strategic partnerships – including those with industry, academia, international research institutes, and co-regulators – to develop and synthesise evidence. The breadth of our scientific and analytical capability and the benefits of our inter-disciplinary approach are widely appreciated. Our specialists undertake a wide range of Investigation, research, services and advice that is directly funded by industry and other regulators across government and overseas.
HSE’s science and evidence strategy is predicated on the use and development of practical, solution-oriented science, maximising the synergies from our regulatory work and our investment in science, and the science we undertake with direct funding from industry and other stakeholders. We uphold the highest standards of scientific ethics, and are committed to peer-review and open access to research outcomes. In our strategy we set out our ‘science and evidence cycle’: anticipating challenges to health and safety; providing robust evidence for effective risk control; underpinning regulatory policy and operational decisions; protecting workers and safeguarding the public by developing interventions; and catalysing Engagement within the health and safety system and improving Performance. Science and evidence is at the heart of HSE’s work. Our science and evidence strategy aims to maximise its contribution to delivering the wider strategy for the health and safety System, Helping Great Britain Work Well.”
Additionally, our annual Foresight Report considers the future world of work and the potential impact on health and safety. For our 2017 report on emerging Information Communications Technology topics, click here.