Discovering Safety helps inform Health and Safety Executive’s approach to data

With the recent publication of HSE’s 2024/25 Business Plan, the regulator has reinforced its commitment to ‘Protecting People and Places’ across Great Britain. As we examine the ten-year strategy that informs the plan (Protecting People and Places: HSE Strategy 2022-2032), we can see how Discovering Safety brings this commitment to life. 

Since its inception in 2018, Discovering Safety’s innovative techniques to analyse and aggregate safety data have helped articulate and inform the Health and Safety Executive’s approach to making better use of data, having a significant impact on health and safety regulation in the UK.

Reflecting on this milestone, Helen Balmforth, Discovering Safety lead and Head of Data Analytics at the Health and Safety Executive, said: “For nearly 50 years, HSE has gathered extensive data on workplace accidents and incidents, receiving over 182,000 new reports annually and managing a total of over 1.7 terabytes of data. This significant body of information underpins Discovering Safety’s ambitious efforts to raise health and safety standards, both in the UK and globally. The support of Lloyd’s Register Foundation in establishing Discovering Safety has helped inform the way data analytics is viewed in HSE, which in turn is contributing to improvements in health and safety in this country.”

Discovering Safety seeks to leverage research findings and insights by integrating them into HSE’s broader activities. By drawing on its vast data resources, Discovering Safety helps HSE use its datasets more intelligently, utilising advanced data science techniques to improve its regulatory capabilities and drive more effective interventions. 

The tools developed through Discovering Safety for the construction sector are designed to be adaptable, offering potential benefits across other industries as well. This flexibility aligns directly with three of HSE’s strategic objectives and themes: 

• Maintaining Great Britain’s record as one of the safest countries to work in 
• Enable industry to innovate safely to prevent major incidents, 
• And making sure we are a relevant, collaborative and enabling HSE 

As new technologies such as robotics, data analytics, and artificial intelligence become more prevalent, the workplace is evolving rapidly. These advances create opportunities to improve health and safety performance, but they also bring new risks. By working closely with industry through initiatives like the Industrial Safetytech Sandbox and the Smarter Regulation Sandbox, HSE seeks to be a regulator attuned to the needs and challenges of modern industry. These projects, led by Discovering Safety, allow HSE to develop and test real-world interventions in partnership with dutyholders, using innovative and practical solutions that anticipate the future world of work. 

Through this approach, Discovering Safety enables HSE to act as a collaborative regulator, one that engages constructively with industry to create a safer and more forward-looking work environment. 

Discovering Safety draws upon HSE’s comprehensive database of accident and incident investigations, covering a wide range of industries and spanning the last 40 years. By supplementing this rich resource with additional data, the programme can unlock new insights into occupational health and safety and make these findings available to academic and industrial partners worldwide. This open exchange of knowledge enables Discovering Safety to serve as a mechanism for HSE to be an enabling regulator. 

By fostering collaboration with stakeholders, the programme allows HSE to support research and innovation, building stronger partnerships and advancing health and safety outcomes for a global audience. 

In providing this foundation for innovation and enhance regulatory capabilities, Discovering Safety has had an immeasurable impact on the way HSE operates, and the programme is poised to make a lasting difference on an international scale.