Health and Safety Executive

Health and Safety Executive

Agency overview
Formed	1 January 1975 (1 January 1975)
Preceding agencies	Railway Inspectorate Factory Inspectorate Mines Inspectorate Explosives Inspectorate Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
Type	Crown status non-departmental public body
Headquarters	Bootle, Merseyside, England
Agency executives	Sarah Newton, Chair Sarah Albon, Chief Executive
Parent department	Department for Work and Pensions
Key document	Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, ss.10-11
Website	www.hse.gov.uk

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in the United Kingdom. It is a non-departmental public body with its headquarters in Bootle, England.^[1] In Northern Ireland, these duties lie with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. The HSE was created by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and has since absorbed earlier regulatory bodies such as the Factory Inspectorate and the Railway Inspectorate though the Railway Inspectorate was transferred to the Office of Rail and Road in April 2006.^[2] The HSE is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. As part of its work, HSE investigates industrial accidents, small and large, including major incidents such as the explosion and fire at Buncefield in 2005. Though it formerly reported to the Health and Safety Commission, on 1 April 2008, the two bodies merged.^[3][4]