In 2024, for the first time, the UK dropped out of the list of the top 20 happiest countries: according to the World Happiness Index. This year, the UK rests in 23rd place, slightly ahead of the US and behind the Nordic countries, Germany, the UAE and others.
By Mike Robinson FCA, British Safety Council on 07 April 2025
The way we cook is more than just a matter of taste and convenience – it’s a critical climate, health, safety, and economic issue. Despite the growing momentum toward building electrification, cooking remains one of the last strongholds of fossil fuel reliance in our homes and commercial kitchens.
By Tushar Nair, Global Cooksafe Coalition on 01 April 2025
Air pollution is often invisible; its impact is anything but. Whether you’re a parent worried about your child’s lungs, a construction worker breathing exhaust fumes, or a commuter passing through busy streets, polluted air is everyone’s problem.
By Scott Paul, Mums for Lungs on 04 April 2025
The new UK Government faces major hurdles on a number of fronts – not least the £22 billion ‘black hole’, which leaves little headroom for the Chancellor in her forthcoming Budget.
By Mike Robinson FCA, British Safety Council on 01 October 2024
Although employers may sometimes be worried about the cost and resource implications, reasonable adjustments to support disabled people to thrive at work are often inexpensive and easy to enact – and provide a major boost to staff productivity, engagement and loyalty.
By Faye Law, Acas on 01 October 2024
The newly-elected Labour administration is now more than three months into its tenure. And we know the to-do list of any incoming government is always vast. However, it is imperative within these priorities that there is a clear strategy to support employee mental health.
By Michael Hough, Mental Health Foundation on 01 October 2024
Health and safety law contains detailed rules to regulate the safety of the workforce, across all workplaces, and for specific higher risk activities and industries. These are well enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which has been very successful in driving down the number of fatalities and injuries sustained at work in the UK. The same is not true when it comes to mental health and wellbeing.
By Katherine Metcalfe, Pinsent Masons on 01 October 2024
If you are in the market for a new kitchen, you will come across engineered stone or ‘quartz’ worktops. Cheap, premium, luxury are words that will be thrown around photos and videos lingering on expanses of shiny, multicoloured stone. But not in Australia, where since July new engineered stone worktops have been banned (although some states allow a six-month transition period).
By Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle on 01 September 2024
Assessments of background asbestos levels in UK buildings may be providing employers with a false sense of reassurance. The UK also looks set to fall behind Europe in reducing the risks the substance poses to building occupants and workers.
By Colette Willoughby, Asbestos Compliance Limited on 01 September 2024
No doubt you have heard or seen the ads marking the 50th anniversary of that famous fast-food restaurant with the golden arches. Those of you who’ve been paying attention will also be aware that it’s the 50th year since the Health & Safety at Work Act was enacted in the UK. I am sure there is no significance in this. But when I started thinking about it, there are perhaps some parallels we can draw between the success of the aforementioned restaurant chain and the landmark 1974 Act.
By Mike Robinson FCA, British Safety Council on 01 September 2024
Clinicians at the Royal Brompton hospital in London have warned about the dangers of silica exposure in a recent study published in Thorax. They are currently treating the first identified cases of silicosis caused by working with engineered stone in the UK and have called for a ban on artificial stone to ward off the potential for an increase in silicosis cases.
By Jim Shannon MP on 01 September 2024
Asbestos was widely used in construction throughout the 20th Century, before finally being banned in 2000 – 50 years after the causal link with lung disease was made.
By Wayne Bates, NASUWT on 01 September 2024
The sudden and alarming appearance of silicosis cases among engineered stone workers in the UK, against the backdrop of a ban in Australia and in some US States, has suddenly brought the question of how to regulate for health protection in the workplace to the fore.
By Kevin Bampton, BOHS on 01 September 2024
