Whither the HSW Act?

Reflections on 50 years of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

Summary:

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 is 50 years old. Phil James and David Walters examine this centrepiece of UK health and safety legislation and consider its future relevance.                                           

Phil James and David Walters have followed the fortunes of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act) since it was introduced, publishing periodic commentary on the effectiveness of its measures. Here they reflect on the HSW Act’s strengths and weaknesses and discuss how far it created a framework of regulation that has been effective in protecting the health and safety of workers during the past 50 years; and how likely it is, that it will continue to do so in the future.

The HSW Act received the Royal Assent 50 years ago, on 31 July 1974. At the time, it was widely welcomed as an advance on the previously existing system of regulation…

 

Phil James is an emeritus professor at Middlesex University. He has researched and published widely on occupational health and safety since the late 1970s, both as a journalist and as an academic.

David Walters was, until he retired, director of the Cardiff Work Environment Research Centre. Currently he is an emeritus professor at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He has researched and written widely on the regulation and industrial relations of work health and safety.  

 

Author: James P, Walters D

Tags hsw - health and safety at work act

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2024 (vol. 21/2) pp19-23

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