Health and Safety Law - Annual Update 2026

9.-9.30 | Registration and coffee

9.30 | Introduction

Aims and objectives, outline of the day.

• HSE Priorities and Enforcement Action – What’s Coming in 2026/7?
- Key statistics: what injury, health, notice and FFI trends reveal
- What’s likely to bring an inspector to your door this year?
- Insight into recent HSE approaches and strategic enforcement
- Guidance, Consultations and possible changes [where not covered in other sessions]

• RIDDOR Reform – The Biggest Reporting Change in Over a Decade
- What HSE’s 2026 RIDDOR consultation proposes
- How reportable injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences may change
- What expanded reporting could mean for employers, managers and H&S teams
- Reviewing incident investigation, escalation and record-keeping processes
- How RIDDOR data may shape enforcement and future HSE priorities

• Protecting Premises, Protecting People – Martyn’s Law Moves into Implementation
- What has changed since the 2025 update: Royal Assent, statutory guidance and implementation timetable
- Understanding whether your premises or events are in scope and in what circumstances
- Standard duty and enhanced duty requirements: what responsible persons need to prepare for
- Public protection procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communications
- Enhanced premises and events: assessing vulnerability and considering proportionate protective security measures
- How EHS professionals should work with estates, facilities, HR, security, event teams and senior leadership
- Applying Martyn’s Law principles to premises and events outside scope

10.45 | Coffee Break

11.10 | Legal Changes to Asbestos Management – Surveys, Clearance and Notifiable Work

- HSE’s consultation on changes to the Control of Asbestos Regulations and guidance
- Why asbestos remains a major compliance and health risk in buildings built before 2000
- Four-stage clearance: independence, impartiality and safe reoccupation
- Raising the quality of asbestos surveys and registers
- What dutyholders need from surveyors before maintenance or refurbishment work starts
- Clarifying notifiable non-licensed work and avoiding misclassification
- Contractor control, maintenance teams and preventing accidental disturbance
- Practical steps for reviewing asbestos management plans in 2026

• AI, Automation and Safety-Critical Decision Making - The Law For Safety Professionals
- Legal responsibilities when using AI tools in risk assessment, inspections or monitoring
- Human oversight, competence and accountability when technology supports safety decisions
- AI in physical products, machinery, sensors and connected devices
- Risks of over-reliance, poor data, bias or automated recommendations
- Building a governance framework for safe legal use of AI in H&S management

• Near Miss Reporting, Management and Legal Implications – When Warnings Are Not Enough
- Why near misses, unsafe observations and repeated minor incidents can become powerful evidence in prosecutions
- What HSE and the courts expect organisations to do after warning signs are identified
- How to investigate near misses proportionately and avoid “paper-only” close-out
- The legal risk of failing to escalate known hazards to senior management
- Using near-miss data to identify systemic failure across sites, processes and teams
- Case studies: Major recent prosecutions
- Practical steps for creating a legally defensible near-miss reporting and action-tracking system

• When a Warning Sign is not a suitable and sufficient control
- What the law says about relying on signs, stickers, warnings and instructions as safety controls
- Why warning signs sit low in the hierarchy of control
- The human factors of signage – why people miss, ignore or misunderstand warning signs
- When employers must physically prevent access to danger rather than simply warn against it
- The difference between informing workers of risk and controlling the risk
- Case study: Major 2026 prosecution
- How HSE uses CCTV, unsafe practices and previous observations to show that signs were ineffective
- Practical steps for reviewing the use of signage whether workplace signage is supporting controls or substituting for them, including tips on typography, colour, contrast, wording and symbols

12.30 | Lunch Break

13.30 | Your questions answered

If you submit a question during the morning that we haven’t answered yet, we will try to answer it during this session or at the end of the day.

• Fire Safety Legal Changes – From Compliance to Evacuation Readiness
- Residential PEEPs: new duties from April 2026 for higher-risk residential buildings
- Building-wide evacuation plans, individual evacuation statements and responsible person duties
- Grenfell Inquiry implementation: what has changed and what is still coming
- What EHS, estates, facilities and housing teams should review now

• Heavy Loads and Stored Materials – Legal Lessons from Recent Prosecutions
- Legal duties around stored materials, heavy loads, lifting operations and crushing risks
- Why “simple” pallet storage, machine movement and materials handling still need suitable risk assessment
- How poor planning of non-routine lifting or moving tasks creates serious liability
- Exclusion zones, supervision and temporary controls during unusual or infrequent tasks
- Case studies: Major recent prosecutions
- Practical steps for reviewing load stability, storage systems, lifting plans and crush-risk controls

• Changing Chemical Rules – What Safety Managers Need to Know
- Recent HSE chemicals legislative reform affecting GB Biocidal Products Regulation, GB CLP and GB Prior Informed Consent
- What is changing in the GB system for chemical classification, labelling and mandatory classification
- Biocidal products: authorisation, active substance approvals and practical implications for users
- Why EU and GB chemical rules may continue to diverge, and why that matters for supply chains
- Impact on COSHH assessments, safety data sheets, product labels, procurement and contractor control
- Practical checks for H&S, facilities, cleaning, estates and FM teams

14.30 | Tea Break

14.55 | Safe to Use? Legal Responsibilities for Inspecting Equipment After Repair, Modification or Delivery

- What the law expects before equipment is returned to service or used for the first time
- Why repair completion does not automatically mean equipment is safe to operate
- Legal duties under HSWA, PUWER, and, where relevant, LOLER
- Inspection, testing, commissioning and handover requirements for new, repaired or modified equipment
- The risks of inconsistent inspection standards across new equipment, repaired equipment and returned customer equipment
- Case study: Major prosecution - incident after inadequate post-repair inspection
- Practical steps for creating a defensible return-to-service process

• Work at Height Safety – Recent Prosecutions and Lessons from Legal Failures
- Why falls from height remain one of the most persistent causes of fatal and serious workplace injury
- Recent prosecutions demonstrate that its not just construction work that’s an issue
- Why “short duration” or “routine” work still needs planning, supervision and competent people
- What recent cases reveal about overlooked dangers
- Practical steps for reviewing work at height arrangements before someone falls

• Noise at Work – Recent Cases, Causation and Hearing Protection Failures
- Recent civil cases on noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus and acoustic injury
- What claimants must prove: exposure, breach of duty, diagnosis, causation and limitation
- Why historic noise exposure can still create modern claims
- The role of audiology, expert evidence and noise exposure records
- Lessons from recent cases
- What employers should retain: noise assessments, health surveillance, training records, PPE issue records and maintenance evidence
- Practical steps for reducing both hearing damage and future civil liability
- Broader implications for other work-related health conditions

15.40-15.50 | Closing summary and final questions