Health and safety

The enforcement of health and safety is split between two authorities.

Local authorities, including the city council, cover many small and medium sized service and retail businesses.

The health and safety executive covers more specialist areas, normally those not accessible to the general public.

Environmental Health staff from Cambridge City Council work with local business to improve health and safety. This information has been produced to help these businesses and show where to get further information.

Getting hurt at work is not a pleasant subject to think about. The reality is that 300 people a year lose their lives at work in Britain. In addition, around 158,000 non-fatal injuries are reported each year, and an estimated 2.2 million suffer from ill health caused or made worse by work.

The mistake is to believe that these things happen in highly unusual or exceptional circumstances that never occur in your workplace. This is not the case. Some basic thinking and acting beforehand could have prevented these things from happening.

This information shows you the kind of things that cause the more common accidents and harm to people’s health. Its purpose is to let you see what applies to your work activities, and to tell you how you can get more help and information.

This is especially important if you are in charge of work activities, e.g. an employer, because you have legal responsibilities.

If you have any general comments or enquiries please email them to Environmental Services or contact us at:

Mandela House
4 Regent Street
Cambridge CB2 1BY

Telephone 01223 457900