Health and safety | UK Regulatory Outlook November 2025
Published on 26th November 2025
HSE launches consultation on Control of Asbestos Regulations and guidance | European Commission agrees to advance child safety online with Australia's eSafety Commissioner and the UK's Ofcom | Building Safety Regulator to become standalone body in January 2026 | BSI publishes first British Standard on suicide and the workplace | HSE publishes annual workplace health and safety statistics showing persistent mental health challenges
HSE launches consultation on Control of Asbestos Regulations and guidance
The Health and Safety Executive has launched a consultation on proposals to improve the application of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and guidance around asbestos management to help protect workers and building users.
The consultation seeks stakeholders' views on three key proposals:
to ensure the independence and impartiality of roles in the four-stage clearance process to further minimise the risk of exposure from asbestos to workers and building users after the removal of asbestos;
to drive up the standard of asbestos surveys to ensure dutyholders have the information they need to safely manage asbestos risks; and
to clarify the type of work that constitutes work with asbestos known as Notifiable Non-Licensed Work (NNLW).
The consultation runs until 9 January 2026, being particularly relevant to dutyholders, asbestos analysts, asbestos removal contractors, asbestos surveyors and associated professions including facilities management and construction.
European Commission agrees to advance child safety online with Australia's eSafety Commissioner and the UK's Ofcom
The European Commission, Australia's eSafety commissioner and the UK's Ofcom have issued a joint communication pledging to work together to advance child safety on digital platforms.
The communication follows a roundtable attended by director-general Roberto Viola of DG CNECT, Australia's eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, and Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes. The three regulators committed to new joint actions to complement ongoing efforts in implementing online safety legislation, while ensuring children have safe, inclusive and empowering access to digital technologies to help them develop digital skills, media literacy and critical thinking.
A key outcome is the establishment of a technical group on age assurance to discuss privacy-preserving age verification solutions. The group will explore how to build the technical evidence base on age assurance and how regulators can support independent research in this field. The Commission is already working on this through its blueprint for an EU-wide age verification solution.
The Commission also highlighted recent DSA enforcement actions to tackle online sales of drugs, vapes and other illegal products to minors, as well as efforts to prevent the creation of "rabbit holes" of harmful material such as content promoting eating disorders.
Building Safety Regulator to become standalone body in January 2026
The Building Safety Regulator will be transferred out of the Health and Safety Executive and established as an independent executive non-departmental public body on 27 January 2026. The Building Safety Regulator (Establishment of New Body and Transfer of Functions etc.) Regulations 2026 were laid before Parliament on 11 November. The new body will report directly to the secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The move ends HSE's three-year spell running the regulator and is intended to strengthen lines of accountability and provide dedicated focus to BSR operations. Ministers have described it as an important first step towards establishing a single construction regulator, the lead recommendation of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report.
All existing Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 applications, inspections and enforcement cases will automatically transfer to the new organisation. The regulator will retain all current powers, staff and live cases, with transitional arrangements allowing HSE staff to continue supporting ongoing work until the end of 2026.
BSI publishes first British Standard on suicide and the workplace
The BSI has published the first British Standard dedicated to addressing the risk of suicide and its impact in the workplace. The standard provides practical guidance for organisations of all sizes and sectors on how to prevent and respond to suicide risk, filling a gap in centralised guidance on what good practice looks like.
The standard includes toolkits and checklists covering intervention, prevention and postvention, a template for creating individual safety plans where a business becomes aware that an individual is at risk, and guidance on promoting an organisational culture that supports workers' psychological needs including senior leadership accountability and mental health support resources.
As a British Standard, the guidance represents good practice rather than legal requirements. However, incorporating aspects of the guidance can help organisations demonstrate robust procedures for managing mental health risk and provide a helpful benchmark to assess how well suicide risk is being managed.
HSE publishes annual workplace health and safety statistics showing persistent mental health challenges
The Health and Safety Executive has published its annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries in 2024/25, revealing that an estimated 1.9 million workers suffered from work-related ill health during the year. Of these, the majority were cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety, indicating that mental health conditions continue to be the main driver of work-related ill health. These rates remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The cost of mental ill health alone to businesses is significant – according to the HSE, work-related ill health and injuries resulted in an estimated 40.1 million working days lost in 2024/25, of which 22.1 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
Businesses have a legal duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of employees which extends to risks to mental health caused or contributed to by work. The latest statistics highlight the need for businesses to prioritise employee wellbeing and keep their wellbeing strategies under continuous review to ensure they remain fit for purpose.
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Regulatory law affects all businesses.
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