Health and Safety Enforcement

How do you make sure work premises are safe?

It is our legal duty to enforce the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and related legislation.

Our Commercial Team in Environmental Health and Licensing aim to ensure that work premises are safe for employees and that accidents are prevented wherever possible. We will:

• Inspect places of work to ensure compliance with health and safety law, in accordance with government priorities.
• Use educational techniques as well as legal means to achieve compliance.
• Investigate accidents to employees or others which occur in workplaces.
• Investigate complaints about health, safety or welfare in work premises.
• Licence particular premises (for example, skin piercing, sex shops).
• Advise other departments about health and safety at entertainment venues.
• Work with Planning and Building Control Officers to advise on the health and safety implications of new developments.
• Give advice to customers and all stakeholders on health and safety issues.
• Work with other health professionals locally and nationally.

You can expect that we will:

• make regular and usually unannounced inspections of workplaces;
• investigate relevant workplace accidents;
• respond to complaints about health and safety in workplaces; and
• respond to requests for advice or information about health and safety.

Help us to help you

Please contact us if you wish to make a complaint about health, safety or welfare conditions in a workplace. Please have full details ready of the premises concerned.

Some workplaces will be the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive. We can advise you who the relevant 'enforcing authority' for health and safety purposes is, when you contact us.

To make a complaint about a workplace please use the email address below. We need your name, address and contact details so that we can keep you informed of our progress.

Prosecutions register

The local authority enforces trading, licensing and public health legislation covering all aspects of consumer protection issues, rogue traders and food premises. In addition to this, we enforce anti-fraud legislation in relation to dishonest claims for benefit.

If businesses have been prosecuted for Health and Safety breaches, the details will be available on the Health and Safety Executive website.