Improved guidance for self-employed workers

HSE has redesigned its webpages for self-employed workers to make it easier for them to understand when health and safety law applies and to find the guidance they need.

The refreshed pages explain:

when health and safety law applies
deciding if your work activity creates a risk to others
high-risk work activities that apply to self-employed workers
how to comply with the law if it applies to you

Find out more in our guidance for self-employed workers.

HSE launches 2025 annual science review

The review illustrates how HSE uses innovative science and evidence to protect people and places.

This year’s annual science review is also accompanied by several video case studies.

Watch the first video ‘When welding goes wrong’ on YouTube.

Keep an eye out for more video case studies from our scientists, researchers and engineers that will be released on our YouTube playlist throughout the year.

Face fit testing: extended ports required

Recent HSE research confirms that face fit testing of tight-fitting respiratory protective equipment (RPE) should be conducted using an extended port.

HSE has carried out research using FFP3 respirators to determine whether acceptable face fit testing can be carried out using a flush port, as opposed to an extended port.

This research identified that conducting face fit testing with a flush port may result in a false pass, which could:

cause the wearer to be exposed to substances hazardous to their health
harm their respiratory health

View the research report in full

HSE’s publication Guidance on respiratory protective equipment fit testing (INDG479) provides information on how the various face fit testing methods should be performed.

The research confirms that the current information is accurate. However, the guidance will be refreshed in due course to make it clear that HSE requires face fit tests to be conducted using an extended port. A separate ebulletin will be issued with this information.

Webinar: Achieving safety culture excellence

23 April, 10:30am

This free webinar, presented with The Stationery Office (TSO), HSE’s official publishing partner will look at:

how to successfully and sustainably improve safety culture
feature a demonstration of HSE’s award-winning Safety Climate Tool
include a live Q&A session with our panel of experts

Director sentenced after filming accident

A media company and its director have been prosecuted after an employee suffered life-changing head and brain injuries while filming from the open boot of a moving car in Devon. The worker fell onto the tarmac during filming for a motorcycle review and has been unable to return to work since. [press.hse.gov.uk], [hsmsearch.com] The incident

Electrical wholesaler fined £4m after worker crushed

A City Electrical Factors Limited employee suffered life-changing injuries after a 231kg switchboard unit fell from a forklift truck during loading operations at the company’s Proteus Switchgear Industrial Division in Telford on 4 October 2024. The 40-year-old father of one sustained severe brain and spinal injuries and now requires 24-hour care in a residential facility.