Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

1.14 
Sources of information on health 
and safety
When anybody, whether a health and safety professional, 
a manager or an employee, is confronted with a health 
and safety problem, they will need to consult various 
Figure 1.9
The main external agencies that impact on the workspace.
Health and Safety
Commission
HSE
FIre and rescue
authorities
District and
Unitary Councils
Country
Councils
Insurance
companies
Environment agency
Home Office
Workplace

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Introduction to Health and Safety at Work
16
items of published information to ascertain the scale of 
the problem and its possible remedies. The sources of 
this information may be internal to the organization and/
or external to it.
Internal sources
, which should be available within 
the organization include:
➤
accident and ill-health records and investigation 
reports
➤
absentee 
records
➤
inspection and audit reports undertaken by the 
organization and by external organizations such as 
the HSE
➤
maintenance, risk assessment (including COSHH) 
and training records
➤
documents which provide information to workers
➤
any equipment examination or test reports.
External sources
, which are available outside the 
organization, are numerous and include:
➤
health and safety legislation
➤
HSC/HSE publications, such as approved codes 
of practice, guidance documents, leafl ets, journals, 
books and their website
➤
international (eg. ILO), European and British 
standards
➤
health and safety magazines and journals
➤
information published by trade associations, employer 
organizations and trade unions
➤
specialist technical and legal publications
➤
information and data from manufacturers and 
suppliers
➤
the internet and encyclopaedias.
Many of these sources of information will be referred to 
throughout this book.