The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: who owes what in a building

01

What the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is, and where it applies

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (often shortened to HSWA) is the legislation on which almost all workplace health and safety law in Great Britain rests. Section 1 says its provisions have effect with a view to "securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work", protecting other people "against risks to health or safety arising out of or in connection with the activities of persons at work", and controlling dangerous substances.

The Act sets general duties as goals, not checklists, and section 15 gives the Secretary of State power to make "health and safety regulations" for any of the general purposes of Part I. Those regulations deal with particular risks, tasks or industries, such as the Workplace Regulations 1992, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and, for construction work, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. HSE's page on health and safety law calls HSWA "the main piece of legislation" and adds: "No one has to have been harmed for an offence to be committed under HSWA – there only has to be a risk of harm."

The Act applies in England, Wales and Scotland. Section 84 says that, apart from narrow exceptions, it "does not extend to Northern Ireland", which has the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978; its Articles 4, 5, 6 and 8 set the same general duties as sections 2, 3, 4 and 7. This guide quotes the Act as amended, as published on legislation.gov.uk in October 2026.

02

The general duties, section by section

Part I sets the general duties, the legal responsibilities each duty holder carries. The sections building managers and contractors meet most often are:

• Section 2, employers to their employees. "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees." Section 2(2) says this includes providing and maintaining safe plant, such as machinery and equipment, and safe systems of work; safe use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances; the necessary information, instruction, training and supervision; a safe workplace under the employer's control, with safe ways in and out; and a safe working environment with adequate facilities.
• Section 2(3), the written policy. An employer must prepare, and revise as often as appropriate, a written statement of its health and safety policy. HSE's page on health and safety policies says: "If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down." Sections 2(4) to 2(7) cover consultation: safety representatives appointed by a recognised trade union must be consulted, and a safety committee set up where they ask for one.
• Section 3, employers and the self-employed to other people. Every employer must conduct its undertaking so as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, "that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".
• Section 4, people in control of premises. Anyone with control, to any extent, of non-domestic premises that others use as a place of work must take reasonable measures to keep the premises, the ways in and out, and any plant or substance provided there safe and without risks to health.
• Section 6, designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers. Anyone who designs, makes, imports or supplies an article for use at work must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that it "is so designed and constructed that it will be safe and without risks to health" when it is set, used, cleaned or maintained, with similar duties for substances.
• Section 7, employees. Every employee at work must "take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work", and co-operate so that others can meet their legal duties.
• Section 8, everyone. "No person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare" under the relevant statutory provisions, such as a fire extinguisher used as a doorstop.
• Section 9, no charge. An employer may not charge an employee for anything done or provided to meet a specific statutory requirement, such as the personal protective equipment that regulation 4 of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 requires an employer to provide.

03

Sections 3 and 4: what a building and its contractors owe each other

A managed building has several duty holders at once: an owner or managing agent, tenant employers, and cleaning, security and maintenance contractors. Each owes section 2 to its own staff; sections 3 and 4 join them up.

Control of premises. Section 4(2) puts the duty on "each person who has, to any extent, control of premises", of the ways in and out, or of plant or substances in them, and asks them "to take such measures as it is reasonable for a person in his position to take". The duty follows the extent of control: a managing agent who controls a stairwell must keep it safe for the contract cleaners who use it, but does not answer for how the cleaning company organises its own staff. Control can also come from paper. Under section 4(3), anyone with an obligation "by virtue of any contract or tenancy" for maintenance or repair of the premises, or for the safety of plant or substances in them, is treated as having control of what the obligation covers. A lease that leaves the lifts to the landlord, or a management agreement giving the agent the repair of the common parts, decides who carries the duty. Under section 4(4) it applies to control held in connection with an undertaking "whether for profit or not".

Contractors and clients. Section 3 runs both ways. A cleaning contractor that leaves a wet corridor unsigned, or a security company whose officer props open a fire door, exposes people who are not its employees to risk. A client whose building holds asbestos, or whose yard mixes vans and pedestrians, exposes the contractor's staff. HSE's leaflet Using contractors: A brief guide (INDG368) puts it plainly: "Both you and the contractor you use have responsibilities under health and safety law." It asks the client to:

• identify the job and its health and safety implications, and check the contractor's competence in proportion to the risk;
• make sure its own risk assessment covers risks to contractors from its business, while the contractor assesses the contracted work, then consider together the risks each creates for the other;
• give the contractor and its staff information on the risks, the controls and the emergency procedures;
• co-operate and co-ordinate throughout, then manage and supervise the work and keep a check on how it is going against what was agreed.

Where employers share a workplace, regulation 11 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires each to co-operate with the others, take all reasonable steps to co-ordinate their measures, and tell the others about the risks their own work creates. In a multi-let office, that is the basis for the contractor induction, shared fire procedures and one defect reporting route.

04

What good evidence of meeting the Act looks like

Section 40 turns an ordinary prosecution round: where a duty is qualified by practicability, "it shall be for the accused to prove (as the case may be) that it was not practicable or not reasonably practicable to do more than was in fact done". The duty holder has to show what was done, which is a question of evidence. HSE's page on health and safety law warns against leaning on documents: "Paperwork alone does not prove that you're complying with the law."

The record-keeping requirements in the Act and its core regulations are few: a written policy for five or more employees (section 2(3)); the significant findings of the risk assessment for five or more employees (regulation 3(6) of the 1999 Regulations); and the approved law poster on display, or the equivalent leaflet given to each worker, under regulation 4 of the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989. Specific regulations add their own, such as reporting under RIDDOR (certain work-related deaths, injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences) or the tests in a fire safety log book.

Beyond those, the evidence is the trail routine work leaves:

• who controls what, written down: which parts, plant and repairs belong to the landlord, the agent, each tenant and each contractor;
• risk assessments the client and the contractor have shared and agreed, not two documents that never met;
• routine checks recorded at the time and the place, with the date, time and person's name, not filled in at the end of the week;
• hazards and defects reported, with when each was made safe and when it was fixed;
• the client's check on contracted work against what was agreed, as INDG368 asks.

HSE's Managing for health and safety (HSG65, revised 2013) frames the job as Plan, Do, Check, Act; most records worth keeping are the Check.

05

Enforcement, offences and personal liability

The Act is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the local authority, by type of premises. HSE's page Is HSE the correct enforcing authority for you? lists HSE for places such as factories, building sites, schools and hospitals, and environmental health for places such as offices, shops, hotels and restaurants. An inspection can lead to:

• advice, verbal or written;
• an improvement notice under section 21, to put a contravention right within a stated period that cannot end before the time allowed for an appeal;
• a prohibition notice under section 22, where an activity involves "a risk of serious personal injury", stopping it immediately or at the end of a stated period;
• prosecution; and where HSE is the enforcing authority and finds a material breach, a charge for the inspector's time, known as fee for intervention (see HSE's page What is fee for intervention?).

Section 33 makes it an offence "to fail to discharge a duty to which he is subject by virtue of sections 2 to 7", to contravene section 8 or 9 or any health and safety regulations, or to contravene an inspector's notice. Under Schedule 3A, failing a general duty carries, on indictment, "imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both". In England and Wales the Sentencing Council's guideline for organisations breaching sections 2 and 3 or health and safety regulations, in force since 1 February 2016, gives an unlimited fine in either court, with an offence range of £50 to £10 million set by turnover, culpability and harm.

Individuals are reached too. Section 37 makes a director, manager, secretary or similar officer guilty alongside the company where its offence was committed "with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of" that person, and section 36 makes guilty anyone whose act or default caused another's offence. The Sentencing Council's guideline for individuals, covering breaches of sections 2, 3 and 7 and secondary liability under sections 36 and 37, runs from a conditional discharge to two years' custody.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

In a shared building the evidence section 40 asks for is often thin: a check sheet signed in advance, a patrol with nothing to show where it went, a trip hazard mentioned to whoever was passing, and a landlord and a contractor who each thought the other had it.

SiteClara records routine checks and faults at the places they happen. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits at each stairwell, washroom, plant room or entrance where a check is scheduled. Cleaning, security and maintenance staff scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, see what is due there, and mark each check done or say what stopped them. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens, with a photo when one is asked for. A hazard or defect reported from the same tag goes onto a list of open jobs, routed to the company that handles it, until someone closes it.

Supervisors see what is due, done and missed, and record why a check was missed. Each day they approve a report that reaches nominated contacts at the owner or managing agent the next morning: one record, made at the time.

07

Questions people ask

Who is responsible for health and safety in the workplace?

The employer, first: section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 makes every employer responsible, so far as is reasonably practicable, for the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees. Responsibility is then shared: whoever controls non-domestic premises has duties to the people who work there (section 4), every business to people its work affects (section 3), every employee to take reasonable care and co-operate (section 7), and a director or manager whose consent, connivance or neglect leads to the company's offence is personally liable (section 37).

What does HASAWA stand for?

HASAWA is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. HSE's page on the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 calls it "the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain" and says it is "sometimes referred to as HSWA, the HSW Act, the 1974 Act or HASAWA". It sets the general duties employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees to themselves and each other.

Which law requires employers to carry out risk assessments?

Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, made under the 1974 Act. It requires every employer to make "a suitable and sufficient assessment" of the risks to its employees at work and to people not in its employment from its undertaking, and an employer with five or more employees must record the significant findings.

What are the fines for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act?

In England and Wales an organisation convicted of breaching sections 2 or 3, or health and safety regulations, faces an unlimited fine in either court, with a range of £50 to £10 million under the Sentencing Council's guideline. Individuals can also be sentenced to up to two years' custody under Schedule 3A of the Act.

Can you sue under the Health and Safety at Work Act?

Not for a breach of the general duties themselves. Section 47(1) says Part I confers no right of action in civil proceedings for a failure to comply with sections 2 to 7 or a contravention of section 8. HSE's page Health and safety at work: criminal and civil law explains that a person who is hurt "may make a claim for compensation against you under civil law", and that neither HSE nor local authorities apply civil law.

08

Where to read the official guidance, and a list to take away

The Act is on legislation.gov.uk as the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, each section on its own page with its amendments, and HSE summarises it on its page on the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. For contractors read Using contractors (INDG368), for boards Leading health and safety at work (INDG417), and for the whole system Managing for health and safety (HSG65).

Before the next contract meeting, check that:

• leases, the management agreement and contracts say who controls each part of the building, its plant and its repairs;
• each contractor's risk assessment has been shared with the client's, and the risks each creates for the other are agreed;
• routine checks are recorded at the time, with names and times, where they are made;
• hazards and defects have one reporting route, and each is made safe and closed with a date;
• someone checks contracted work against what was agreed, and keeps the record.