CheckAFirm

Health and Safety Executive registers

HSE prosecutions and enforcement notices

The published conviction register, searchable by company, industry or local authority, alongside the most recent enforcement notices. Every entry links to the case on HSE, and where the defendant is a company rather than an individual, to a free check on it.

Read this first. The published conviction register is not a complete history of HSE prosecutions. It held 201 cases when this page was last built, while the notices register holds 30,247 entries. A firm that does not appear here has not been shown to have a clean safety record. It has only not been found in what HSE currently publishes.

Conviction register

Showing 25 of 201

Latest enforcement notices

The thirty most recently issued notices from a register of 30,247. To search the whole notices register by company name, use the HSE notices search, or run a full CheckAFirm report, which searches it for you against the exact registered name.

What each type of notice means

Improvement notice

Served when an inspector believes the law is being broken. It sets a deadline by which the problem must be put right. Work can carry on in the meantime.

Prohibition notice

Served when an activity carries a risk of serious personal injury. It stops that activity, either immediately or from a stated date, and it is the more serious of the two by a wide margin.

Crown notice

The equivalent notice served on a Crown body, which cannot be prosecuted in the same way as a company.

Checking one particular firm?

A full report searches both HSE registers against the exact registered name, so a prosecution belonging to a similarly named company is not attributed to yours, and adds the company record, insolvency history and the directors' other companies in the same place.

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Questions people ask

Are HSE prosecutions public?

Yes. The Health and Safety Executive publishes a register of convictions and a register of enforcement notices, both searchable by the name of the defendant or recipient, and both free to use. This page reads those same registers.

Is this every HSE prosecution?

No, and it matters. The published conviction register carries a few hundred cases at a time, while the notices register carries tens of thousands. HSE brings far more prosecutions than the conviction register shows at any one moment. A firm that does not appear has not been shown to be clean; it has only not been found in what HSE currently publishes. The count at the top of this page is read live from the register, so it is the real number today.

What is the difference between a notice and a prosecution?

An enforcement notice is served by an inspector and requires something to be fixed or stopped. A prosecution goes to court and can end in a conviction and a fine. A notice is not a finding of guilt, and a company can receive one, deal with it properly, and never be prosecuted.

How far back does the register go?

HSE states the notices register covers roughly the last five years. The conviction register on this page currently reaches back further than that for a small number of cases. Both are published in arrears, so recent cases can take weeks to appear.

The company name here is similar to one I am checking. Is it the same firm?

Do not assume it is. Similar names are extremely common in construction and haulage, and the register does not carry company numbers. Two firms one word apart are two different legal entities with different owners. Use the company check link on each entry to see who is actually behind the name on your quote.

Should an HSE record stop me using a firm?

It depends what it was for and when. A prohibition notice on a roofing firm two months ago is a different fact from an improvement notice about paperwork six years ago. Read the case, look at the date, and weigh it against everything else you know. The value of the register is that it tells you something no review site will.

Conviction and notice data is published by the Health and Safety Executive and read live from its registers. CheckAFirm does not host, edit or add to it, and cannot amend an entry. Corrections are a matter for HSE.