Withdrawn! The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Amendment) Bill

What's the latest with the government's proposed amendments to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974?

You may recall from our recent articles Violence and harassment in the workplace and Violence and harassment in the workplace: draft Bill published – what does this mean for businesses? that progress was being made by the government following proposals to amend the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (“HSWA”), by introducing the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Amendment) Bill (“Bill”).

According to the Member in charge, Liz Saville Roberts, this Bill was to introduce "clear, actionable duties for employers to protect workers from violence and harassment" in the workplace. Roberts’ Bill, developed with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and Rights of Women, was intended to utilise the most stringent mechanism that already exists in the workplace (the HSWA) which puts onus on employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees, to also combat workplace gender-based harassment and violence (International Women’s Day - Hansard - UK Parliament).

Roberts envisaged that this Bill would tackle the rise of workplace issues (Waste workers face amid rise in abuse) by placing actionable duties on employers to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to limit the risk of employees experiencing workplace violence or harassment. At the House of Commons debate on 6 March 2025 for International Women’s Day, Roberts gave examples of such measures, including risk assessments, policy documents and recognition and prevention training to all employees (Violence and harassment in the workplace: draft Bill published – what does this mean for businesses?). Not only this, but Roberts’ Bill was intended to also leverage the current legal framework by mandating the Health and Safety Executive (“HSE”) to publish an enforceable framework and corresponding guidance on violence and harassment (International Women’s Day - Hansard - UK Parliament).

The Bill had its first reading on 21 October 2024, with the publication of the draft bill following shortly after on 27 November 2024. On 19 June 2025, however, the day prior to the proposed second reading (Stages of HSWA 1974 (amendment) bill), Roberts withdrew the bill, meaning that this call for an amendment will progress no further (Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament News).

It is not entirely clear as to why Roberts has withdrawn this Bill, nor is it clear what exactly this will mean for employers and employees, but what is certain is that the government appears keen to be seen tackling issues receiving more and more media attention. Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson has recently been involved in the ongoing government scheme to reduce shoplifting and associated anti-social behaviour, commenting that the government would be bringing in new laws to make assaulting shop workers a specific offence (Shoplifters get warning from policing minister on visit to Woking - BBC News). Not only this, but the simple awareness of this Bill will have played a part in focusing the minds of companies and individual employees to eliminating gender-based violence in the workplace and it may have already led to some proactive companies implementing changes in their current practices, in anticipation that this Bill may have become law (Openreach engineers trial panic alarms).

Clyde & Co are specialists in dealing with work-related regulatory investigations and claims, and we closely monitor developments around this topic. For more on this subject, you can read all of our previous articles here, and if you have any questions about this topic you can contact Alan Kells or any of our Safety, Health, Environment and Regulatory team.