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For straightforward guidance on how to comply with the health and safety law, go to The basics for your business.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It's sometimes referred to as HSWA, the HSW Act, the 1974 Act or HASAWA.

It sets out the general duties which:

employers have towards employees and members of the public

employees have to themselves and to each other

certain self-employed have towards themselves and others

You can read the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in full on legislation.gov.uk.

You can find out about health and safety law in our guide Health and safety at work: criminal and civil law.

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Contains links to various pieces of legislation, as well as the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

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1. Overview

As an employer, you must protect your workers from the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling in the workplace. Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads. A load can be an object, person or animal.

The law sets out how employers must deal with risks from manual handling:

avoid hazardous manual handling, so far as reasonably practicable

assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided

reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling to as low as reasonably practicable

The weight of a load is important, though the law does not set specific weight limits.

In some cases, you must provide information about the weight and position of the centre of gravity of each load, if there is a risk of injury and it is reasonably practicable to do this.

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As an employer, you must protect your workers from the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling in the workplace. Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads. A load can be an object, person or animal.

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Working at height remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Common cases include falls from ladders and through fragile surfaces. 'Work at height' means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury (for example a fall through a fragile roof).

Employers can take simple, practical measures to reduce the risk of any of their workers falling while working at height.

What you have to do

You must make sure work is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job. You must use the right type of equipment for working at height.

Take a sensible approach when considering precautions. Low-risk, relatively straightforward tasks will require less effort when it comes to planning and there may be some low-risk situations where common sense tells you no particular precautions are necessary.

Assessing and controlling the risks

First assess the risks, considering the:

height of the task

duration and frequency

condition of the surface being worked on

Before working at height follow these simple steps:

avoid work at height where it's reasonably practicable to do so

where work at height cannot be easily avoided, prevent falls using either an existing place of work that is already safe or the right type of equipment

where the risk cannot be eliminated, minimise the distance and consequences of a fall by using the right type of equipment

For each step, consider measures that protect everyone at risk (collective protection) before measures that only protect the individual (personal protection).
Find out more in our step-by-step guide
Collective protection

Collective protection is equipment that does not require the person working at height to act for it to be effective. Examples are:

permanent or temporary guardrails

scissor lifts

tower scaffolds

Personal protection

Personal protection is equipment that requires the individual to act for it to be effective. An example is putting on a safety harness correctly and connecting it, with an energy-absorbing lanyard, to a suitable anchor point.

What to do and not do when working at height

When working at height you should:

do as much work as possible from the ground

ensure workers can get safely to and from where they work at height

ensure equipment is suitable, stable and strong enough for the job, maintained and checked regularly

take precautions when working on or near fragile surfaces

provide protection from falling objects

consider emergency evacuation and rescue procedures

To prevent accidents and injuries do not:

overload ladders - consider the equipment or materials workers are carrying before working at height. Check the pictogram or label on the ladder for information

overreach on ladders or stepladders

rest a ladder against weak upper surfaces, for example glazing or plastic gutters

use ladders or stepladders for strenuous or heavy tasks, only use them for light work of short duration (a maximum of 30 minutes at a time)

let anyone who is not competent (who doesn't have the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job) work at height

Example

Preventing falls from ladders

The law

If you are an employer or you control work at height (for example if you are a contractor or a factory owner), The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to you.
More about the law and what you need to do

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Introduction to working at height safely - HSE

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Working at height remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Common cases include falls from ladders and through fragile surfaces

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Working safely with display screen equipment

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As an employer, you must protect your workers from the health risks of working with display screen equipment such as PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

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New Legislation

Stay up to date with newly enacted legislation for the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it is published to this site using our free subscription feeds, or by browsing new legislation by publication date. All Bills currently before the UK Parliament are listed on the UK Parliament website in the Parliamentary Business, Bills & Legislation section. They are published on this site once they receive Royal Assent.
Browse new legislation

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The official home of UK legislation, revised and as enacted 1267-present. This website is managed by The National Archives on behalf of HM Government. Publishing all UK legislation is a core part of the remit of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), part of The National Archives, and the Office of the King's Printer for Scotland.

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Access legislative documents from the House of Commons and the House of Lords, including Public, Private and Hybrid Bills, Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments

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An Act to make provision about intellectual property.

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Having the right type of intellectual property protection helps you to stop people stealing or copying:

the names of your products or brands

your inventions

the design or look of your products

things you write, make or produce

Copyright, patents, designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property protection. You get some types of protection automatically, others you have to apply for.

What counts as intellectual property

Intellectual property is something that you create using your mind - for example, a story, an invention, an artistic work or a symbol.

Owning intellectual property

You own intellectual property if you:

created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, a patent or a design)

bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner

have a brand that could be a trade mark, for example, a well-known product name

Intellectual property can:

have more than one owner

belong to people or businesses

be sold or transferred

Intellectual property rights allow you to make money from the intellectual property you own.

Intellectual property if you're self-employed

If you're self-employed, you usually own the intellectual property even if your work was commissioned by someone else - unless your contract with them gives them the rights.

You usually will not own the intellectual property for something you created as part of your work while you were employed by someone else.

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What intellectual property is, how you can protect it, and which of copyright, patents, design right and trade marks applies to your work

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Legislation is available in different versions:

Latest Available (revised): The latest available updated version of the legislation incorporating changes made by subsequent legislation and applied by our editorial team. Changes we have not yet applied to the text, can be found in the 'Changes to Legislation' area.

Original (As Enacted or Made): The original version of the legislation as it stood when it was enacted or made. No changes have been applied to the text.

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An Act to make provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to individuals; to make provision in connection with the Information Commissioner's functions under certain regulations relating to information; to make provision for a direct marketing code of practice; and for connected purposes.

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The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government.

The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called 'data protection principles'. They must make sure the information is:

used fairly, lawfully and transparently

used for specified, explicit purposes

used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary

accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date

kept for no longer than is necessary

handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

There is stronger legal protection for more sensitive information, such as:

race

ethnic background

political opinions

religious beliefs

trade union membership

genetics

biometrics (where used for identification)

health

sex life or orientation

There are separate safeguards for personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to find out what information the government and other organisations store about you. These include the right to:

be informed about how your data is being used

access personal data

have incorrect data updated

have data erased

stop or restrict the processing of your data

data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services)

object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances

You also have rights when an organisation is using your personal data for:

automated decision-making processes (without human involvement)

profiling, for example to predict your behaviour or interests

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The Data Protection Act (DPA) controls how personal information can be used and your rights to ask for information about yourself