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Health & Safety Executive

Health and Safety Executive

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a non-departmental public body which has statutory responsibility in Great Britain for securing the health and safety of workers and protecting the general public from work-related risks. HSE’s responsibilities go beyond core Health and Safety at Work and include, for example, the regulation of nuclear safety and security, pesticides and animal pathogens. HSE works closely with other government departments, particularly the Department for Work and Pensions (its parent department), the Department for Energy and Climate and Climate Change (DECC) and DEFRA.

HSE’s legal advisers are able, committed lawyers, who enjoy a very broad range of high quality work. They have the satisfaction of knowing that their advice, casework and regulations can make a direct impact on saving lives. In addition, our work places emphasis on the Cabinet Office’s better regulation agenda. HSE believes that risk management should be about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering, not bureaucratic back covering. If you believe some of the stories in the press, you might think that health and safety law is all about stopping any activity that might possibly lead to harm. This is not HSE’s vision of sensible health and safety - our approach is to seek a balance between the unachievable aim of absolute safety and the kind of poor management of risk that damages lives and the UK economy.

Work of the Legal Team

HSE Legal Adviser’s Office consists of three teams: one dealing with enforcement and two dealing with advisory and drafting work. The enforcement team is based at HSE’s headquarters in Bootle, Merseyside, and the two advisory teams are based in London.

The Enforcement Division

The Litigation and Enforcement Advice Division is responsible for a wide variety of casework including direct responsibility for the more complex and/or high profile prosecutions under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The team also monitors and liaises with solicitor agents handling lower profile cases on behalf of the organisation. The team’s portfolio also includes appeals against Enforcement Notices before the Employment Tribunal and a variety of civil litigation. The team provides enforcement advice; legal training and updates to operational staff, policy advisory work and lead on liaison with other prosecution agencies.

The Advisory and Drafting Division

These divisions provide general advice on all aspects of health and safety law. Advisory portfolios include the nuclear, oil, gas, and fire industries, construction, occupational stress, environment issues such as tobacco smoke, and biocides, amongst others. Lawyers will have involvement with high profile issues such as the Buncefield explosion and the government’s policy on new nuclear power stations. Advisory and drafting lawyers are also responsible for the drafting of statutory instruments, many of which originate from European measures, and are involved at all stages from negotiation of the text of Directives to consultation on proposed Regulations. The Corporate Advisory team provides advice on a number of corporate issues including contract, tort, information law (Freedom of Information and Data Protection Act), employment, copyright and intellectual property rights and procurement law issues.

Legal Trainee Opportunities

HSE has, on occasions, recruited trainees via the central GLS scheme. We have hosted a number of trainees from other departments for single seats. Our own trainee solicitors will undertake two seats in HSE and will then go on secondment to another GLS team to undertake further training.

Location

HSE Headquarters are in Bootle, Merseyside. Lawyers in the London office are currently located on Southwark Bridge in close proximity to the Temple, the Royal Courts of Justice and the Central Criminal Court.

Further Information

Opportunities for qualified lawyers are advertised on the Civil ServiceRecruitment Gateway. Click here to go to the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway (this will open in a new window).

For further information please visit www.hse.gov.uk