No single official publication tells you how well UK employers comply with the legal duty to assess workplace risks — the numbers sit scattered across the Health and Safety Executive’s annual statistics, its Annual Report and Accounts, the public enforcement registers, the CIPD’s Health and Wellbeing at Work survey and the EU-OSHA ESENER workplace survey. This page pulls them together into one citable reference: what the law requires, how much ill health the risk assessment duty has to manage, how many employers actually assess risk, and what happens to those that don’t. Every figure is drawn from a named source, with the data period alongside it.
Key facts and figures
- 1.9 million workers were suffering from work-related ill health in 2024/25 — the risk every employer’s assessment has to manage.
- 964,000 workers experienced work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25 — the single biggest category the duty now covers.
- 40.1 million working days were lost to work-related ill health and workplace injury in 2024/25.
- £22.9 billion — the estimated annual cost of workplace injuries and new cases of work-related ill health (2023/24 cost model).
- 246 criminal prosecutions were completed by the HSE in 2024/25, with a 96% conviction rate and fines exceeding £33 million.
- 4,400+ enforcement notices were issued by the HSE in 2024/25 — around 3,200 improvement and 1,200 prohibition notices.
- £6 million — the fine imposed on Cambridgeshire County Council in April 2025 after deaths on a busway for which no risk assessment had been carried out.
- £188 per hour — HSE’s Fee for Intervention rate from 1 April 2026, for chargeable work following a material breach.
Reviewed on 15 October 2026. The figures below identify their own periods: HSE ill-health estimates cover Great Britain in 2024/25, enforcement accounts cover 2024/25, and newer inspection totals are provisional 2025/26 KPI results.
What does UK law require on risk assessment?
In Great Britain, regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers to assess risks to employees and others affected by their work. Employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings and any groups especially at risk. Smaller employers still need to assess and control risks. This general recording threshold does not override separate duties: for example, all responsible persons in England and Wales must record their fire risk assessment. Northern Ireland has separate legislation.
The regulation has been in force since 1999, sitting under the general duty in section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and “suitable and sufficient” is the standard that enforcement action is measured against. When inspectors or prosecutors cite a risk assessment failing, that is the phrase that appears. For what the duty involves in practice, see our guides to what a risk assessment is and the five-step process.
HSE’s public enforcement register records notices and the provisions cited by inspectors. It is a record of enforcement action, not a census of businesses with valid risk assessments: absence from the register does not establish compliance.
How much work-related ill health does the duty cover?
1.9 million workers in Great Britain were suffering from a work-related illness — new or long-standing — in 2024/25, according to the HSE’s annual statistics. That is the scale of the harm that risk assessments exist to anticipate and control, and it explains why the duty is enforced as seriously as it is.
Within that total, 964,000 workers experienced work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25 — roughly half of all reported work-related ill health, and the clearest evidence that the assessment duty now extends well beyond physical hazards. Work-related ill health and injury together cost Great Britain an estimated £22.9 billion a year (2023/24 cost model, published with the November 2025 statistics release), with ill health accounting for around 72% of the total — about £16.4 billion. In 2024/25, 40.1 million working days were lost to work-related ill health and workplace injury.
These figures are context for the duty rather than the subject of this page — we deliberately keep injury-by-injury analysis out of scope. For the full breakdown of the largest single slice, see our work-related stress statistics page.
How many businesses actually carry out risk assessments?
The ESENER-3 survey reported that 76% of establishments across the EU-28 carried out regular risk assessments in 2019. This is a historical European result, not a UK compliance rate. ESENER 2024 does not include the UK, so its results cannot be used as an updated UK percentage.
The CIPD’s 2025 employer survey provides a narrower view of workplace practice: 64% of responding organisations were taking steps to identify or reduce stress, and 50% of those taking action considered their efforts effective. These survey responses describe reported practice; they do not establish whether an assessment meets the legal standard.
The honest summary: the legal duty is universal, the ill-health burden is measured every year, but how many UK businesses hold a suitable and sufficient risk assessment at any given moment is not officially counted. What can be measured is what happens when they don’t — which is where the enforcement data comes in.
How is the risk assessment duty enforced?
246 criminal prosecutions were completed by the HSE in 2024/25, with a 96% conviction rate and fines from convictions exceeding £33 million, according to the HSE’s Annual Report and Accounts for that year. Alongside the prosecutions, the HSE issued more than 4,400 enforcement notices in 2024/25 — around 3,200 improvement notices and 1,200 prohibition notices — and completed over 13,200 proactive workplace inspections.
These prosecution and notice figures cover HSE’s remit, rather than every UK enforcing authority. A notice count also measures enforcement decisions, not the total number of workplaces with inadequate assessments. HSE’s newer KPI report records 14,927 inspections in 2025/26; that end-year total is provisional pending validation.
| Measure | Figure | Period / scope |
|---|---|---|
| Prosecutions completed by HSE | 246 | 2024/25 annual accounts |
| Conviction rate | 96% | — |
| Fines from convictions | £33 million+ | — |
| Enforcement notices issued | More than 4,400 | 2024/25 annual accounts |
| Improvement notices | Around 3,200 | 2024/25 annual accounts |
| Prohibition notices | Around 1,200 | 2024/25 annual accounts |
| Inspections completed | 14,927 | 2025/26 provisional KPI outturn |
| Fee for Intervention rate | £188/hour | From 1 April 2026 |
The full fines-and-notices series — trends since the 2016 sentencing guideline, the largest penalties and Fee for Intervention in detail — is on our HSE enforcement statistics page.
What does a major risk assessment prosecution show?
Cambridgeshire County Council was fined £6 million, with £292,460.90 in costs, at Cambridge Crown Court on 16 April 2025. HSE’s prosecution concerned failures to protect people at crossings and alongside the guided busway. The council pleaded guilty to two offences under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The case illustrates the importance of identifying risks and acting on the controls needed. It is an example, not a ranking of the largest fines. In England and Wales, the sentencing guideline considers culpability, the risk of harm and the organisation’s turnover; the circumstances of each offence determine the penalty.
How much does an HSE intervention cost?
HSE’s Fee for Intervention rate is £188 per hour from 1 April 2026. Where the scheme applies, a material breach that requires written notification can lead to charges for the regulator’s work identifying the breach and securing compliance.
There is no standard invoice for a missing assessment. The amount depends on chargeable time and the work required; the hourly rate is not a fixed penalty. HSE’s charging guidance explains the scheme’s scope and exclusions.
Frequently asked questions
How many businesses do risk assessments in the UK?
There is no single official UK-wide compliance percentage. ESENER’s 76% result relates to EU-28 establishments in 2019, while CIPD surveys measure particular practices among responding organisations. Neither establishes the proportion of UK businesses with legally sufficient assessments.
What is the fine for failing to carry out a risk assessment?
There is no fixed penalty for every risk assessment failure. Courts consider the offence and circumstances; health and safety fines in the Crown Court in England and Wales can be unlimited. The £6 million Cambridgeshire County Council fine in April 2025 is one documented example of a serious safety prosecution.
Do risk assessments have to be written down?
Under the general Management Regulations in Great Britain, employers with five or more employees must record significant findings and groups especially at risk. Smaller employers must still assess and control risk. Separate rules can require records regardless of headcount, including fire risk assessments for responsible persons in England and Wales.
What are the stress risk assessment statistics?
HSE estimated 964,000 workers with work-related stress, depression or anxiety in Great Britain in 2024/25. Separately, 64% of organisations responding to CIPD’s 2025 survey were taking steps to identify or reduce stress. The first figure measures self-reported ill health; the second measures employer practice.
How often are these statistics updated?
HSE publishes annual health and safety statistics, annual accounts and quarterly performance reports on different timetables. The CIPD health and wellbeing report is biennial. This page was reviewed on 15 October 2026 and labels each result with its reporting period.
Related guides
- Work-Related Stress Statistics UK: HSE Facts & Data
- HSE Enforcement Statistics UK: Fines, Prosecutions & Notices
- What is a risk assessment? A guide to UK workplace law
- The 5 steps to risk assessment: how to do one properly
- Who can carry out a risk assessment? The competence question explained
- How often should a risk assessment be reviewed?
Sources & references
- HSE — Health and safety statistics for Great Britain
- HSE — Costs to Britain, 2023/24
- HSE — Annual report and accounts 2024/25
- HSE — Provisional 2025/26 performance results
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3
- Home Office — Fire safety responsibilities and recording duties
- HSE — Enforcement notices register
- HSE — Cambridgeshire guided busway prosecution, April 2025
- HSE — Fee for Intervention rates
- CIPD — Health and wellbeing at work 2025
- EU-OSHA — ESENER 2019 overview report
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, risk assessment and accredited online training for Risk Assessment Training, part of Online CPD Academy.