20/01/2026
Latest update from the Health and Safety Inspectorate
The extent of the Health and Safety Inspectorate's regulatory role
19 January 2026
The extent of the Inspectorate's regulatory role
The Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI) has had increasing contact from government officials, States members, media, public interest groups and members of the public expecting HSI to take certain actions. Unfortunately, the requests received are often based on a misunderstanding of our regulatory role or legal vires.
HSI and Health and Safety Law
Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989 (HSW Law) places duties on employers, the self-employed etc. to manage the risks they create. We call those with duties under the Law ‘dutyholders’.
HSI’s role as the regulator of HSW Law is to promote effective risk management to ensure dutyholders understand their responsibilities in Law to effectively manage the risks they create to the health and safety of their workers and to the public.
The Law places no duties on HSI but provides authorised Inspectors with extensive powers to investigate. HSI Inspectors are specially trained criminal investigators and experts in the active risk management framework that the Law provides for.
Recent requests and clarifications
Request
To take action in accordance with our legal duties
Clarification
HSI do not have any statutory duties under HSW Law. Accordingly, HSI are not legally required to inspect or investigate every complaint, incident, workplace or work activity. HSI are a very small team covering every work activity in Jersey, we take a risk-based approach to inspecting and investigating complaints and incidents in order to make best use of our limited resources.
Request
To provide an assessment of health and safety risks
Clarification
HSI do not assess risk, that is the responsibility of the relevant dutyholder. HSI Inspectors are not experts in every work activity, they are experts in the requirements of HSW Law.
Inspectors will examine how well a dutyholder is managing their significant risks in accordance with the requirements placed on them under the Health and Safety Law, for example to have policies, procedures, risk assessments, safe systems of work etc. Inspectors will then take appropriate action e.g. give verbal or written advice, and/or issue enforcement notices etc. to secure improvements in dutyholder risk management.
Request
To provide an assurance of how well a dutyholder is managing their risks
Clarification
HSI are not actively involved in a dutyholders day-to-day risk management. HSI interventions are timebound and focussed on significant risks, they are not a comprehensive audit of an entire business. Any number of changes may be made by dutyholders after an HSI visit, such as new equipment, people leaving or joining, which means HSI cannot provide any ongoing reassurance of how well a business is managing its risks. It is a matter for the business itself to provide the necessary assurances of their risk management.
Request
To specify or approve a risk control measure
Clarification
HSI does not ‘approve’ or comment on the specific requirements to manage a particular risk. Inspectors are not experts in the nuances of every work activity and under Health and Safety Law it is for the dutyholder to determine and implement appropriate control measures, obtaining competent advice if necessary to assist them.
Request
To communicate our investigation findings
Clarification
HSI are bound by strict disclosure rules under Health and Safety Law. This is made clear in our public policies and by Inspectors when responding to emails or phone calls from workers and the public. We do share widely relevant anonymised information in our Annual Report and on our updates from the Health and Safety Inspectorate page. This includes quarterly enforcement updates, reports on prosecutions and findings from themed inspections.
Health and Safety Inspectorate: who we are and what we do
Following a review of requests received for action by HSI we clarify the extent of our role and activities
