HSENI Occupational Health Initiative - Health Surveillance

As part of HSENI’s Workplace Health Campaign 2025/26, the Manufacturing Team will be launching an enforcement initiative in April 2025 specifically focusing on Health Surveillance.

Starting this month the team will visit manufacturing and engineering companies to conduct focused inspections.

The move comes after HSENI figures revealed more than 350 people in Northern Ireland die annually due to work-related disease. 

This Health Surveillance Initiative by the Manufacturing Team is part of the overall HSENI Workplace Health Campaign which shall focus on three key priorities:

• occupational lung diseases
• occupational cancers
• work-related mental wellbeing and musculoskeletal disorders

Acting Principal Inspector Karen Robinson said: “Statistics show that each year more people become ill because of their work than are killed or injured in industrial accidents. This is a huge cost to the individual, their families, and colleagues as well as to the wider economy and health service. The onset of a work-related illness can be gradual and may take years to become apparent.

“Employers must ensure that the long-term health risks to their staff, from work activities, have been considered. ‘Health Surveillance’ is one tool an employer can use to protect the health of their employees. It is a scheme of repeated health checks that can be used to identify work-related ill health at the earliest opportunity and allow appropriate action to be taken to protect employees.”

Health and safety law requires health surveillance to be provided by employers when workers remain exposed to health risks even after you have put controls in place. This is because control measures may not always be reliable, despite appropriate checking, training, and maintenance.

Throughout this initiative companies will be visited by HSENI Inspectors who will:

• examine what health hazards are present in the workplace which require health surveillance (for example, hazardous substances, noise and vibration)
• check that control measures which are in place to prevent exposure to workers are relevant and adequate
• expect companies to have a Health Surveillance Scheme in place where their risk assessment identifies a need for one
• explore the components of the Health Surveillance Scheme in place and suitability of the Occupational Health Provider involved in setting it up
• check how the Health Surveillance Scheme is being managed

Where inspectors find the above requirements are not in place, enforcement action, in the form of Improvement and Prohibition Notices, may be issued.

In preparation for the inspections, Manufacturing and Engineering Companies are advised to use the following check list to assess their current management of Health Surveillance. They must ensure that:

• a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for health surveillance has been prepared and is available
• health surveillance is in place where the risk assessment identifies the legal requirement in the workplace
• the services of a competent Occupational Health Provider are used to help implement and manage a Health Surveillance Scheme including results of surveillance are being acted on accordingly
• employees are aware of health risks associated with their work activities and understand what action to take if they notice signs or symptoms of ill-health

For further information related to this initiative please see the links below:

• Manufacturing - Occupational Health
• Health in manufacturing - Resource list
• Tips for purchasing occupational health services
• Health surveillance and occupational health - (HSE website)
• Occupational Health Risk Navigator - (WHLGNI website)

Notes to editors: 

1. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body, sponsored by the Department for the Economy (DfE), and is the lead body responsible for the promotion and enforcement of health and safety at work standards in Northern Ireland: www.hseni.gov.uk
2. HSENI has a free Business Advisory Service for small to medium sized companies. Contact a Business Advisor to arrange a visit on 028 9024 3249 ext. 46820
3. For media enquiries please contact HSENI Press Office on 028 9024 3249 or email media@hseni.gov.uk. For out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer on 028 9037 8110

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