All businesses have a duty of care to ensure that all Health & Safety legislative requirements are complied with. The Health & Safety Executive inspectors have the powers to ensure this is enforced and can enter your premises and interview employees to gain evidence, obtain witness statements, photographs, and can also remove and destroy any machinery they deem as dangerous.

An inspector will issue an improvement notice if they believe you're breaking health and safety law. This will happen if the breach is of a serious nature and poses a significant risk to workers or the general public.

An improvement notice will provide the option to implement any corrective measures and will:

  • Specify what you're doing that breaches the law
  • Specifies what needs to be done to correct the breach and the reasons behind it
  • The inspector will give you at least 21 days to comply with the notice and take any remedial actions
  • Prior to the improvement notice is served the inspector will discuss the breaches with you and will answer and resolve any queries you may have

Businesses must always comply with an improvement notice as failure to do so will result in prosecution. If you think the notice is unfair, you have the right to appeal against it to an employment tribunal, information on how to bring an appeal will be provided along with the notice.