Health and safety | UK Regulatory Outlook March 2025

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill completes reading in House of Lords

On 11 March 2025, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill completed its third reading in the House of Lords with no further amendments. This followed the report stage on 4 March 2025, where a number of amendments were proposed to the bill, but relatively few were agreed to. Out of those that were agreed to, the following amendments are of note:

• Clarifying amendments: two amendments were made to tighten the definition of "qualifying events". References to: "invitations…allowing access [to an event]" were amended to: "tickets…allowing access [to an event]". A similar amendment was made in respect of individuals wishing to access premises who are "members or guests of a club, association or other body". This was amended at report stage to: "members or guests of a club, association or similar body".
• Requirement to consult: an amendment was made to the bill which requires the secretary of state to consult "such persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate" before making regulations to amend measures relating to public protection requirements. Perhaps most significantly, the secretary of state will be required (if the amendments are approved by the Commons) to consult before making amendments to the thresholds for an event to be considered a "qualifying event", or premises to be considered "qualifying premises".
• Guidance: the bill requires the secretary of state to publish guidance about its public protection requirements. The public protection requirements, as set out in Part I of the bill, cover a broad range of areas including: (i) in-scope events, (ii) the requirement to appoint a responsible person, (iii) notification requirements, (iv) responsibilities for enforcement and (v) penalties for non-compliance. At report stage, the Lords agreed to an amendment which requires the secretary of state to consult "such persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate" before publishing such guidance.

The bill will now return to the Commons on 25 March 2025, where the amendments made by the House of Lords will be considered. If approved, the bill will then move to Royal Assent.

What does the government's growth agenda mean for health and safety?

On 17 March 2025, the government published a policy paper "New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth". This sets out the actions it plans to take to reform the regulatory system in a bid to promote growth and investment. See our Insight for more.

The first action in this paper addresses the complexity and burden of regulations, with a specific focus on health and safety regulation. It outlines that the government "will tackle instances where current approaches are unnecessarily limiting growth". It goes on to highlight the work the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be initiating in 2025 including consulting on potential changes to the definitions, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences reported under the Reporting Of Injuries and reviewing older prescriptive legislation, specifically the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

With regulatory reform being a top priority for the government, it will be interesting to observe how the HSE responds and what changes will be implemented.