Health and Safety in 2026: What’s Actually Changing – And What Might

2026 is not a “new Health and Safety at Work Act” moment but….

It is a year where:

• Some big changes finally go live.
• HSE reviews key regulations that have been around for decades.
• Mental health and building safety move from campaigns and headlines into day-to-day enforcement.

If you run a business, manage property, or act as duty holder on projects, you cannot afford to treat these as background noise.

At The Safety Department, we work as an outsourced QHSE function and as Principal Designer under the Building Regulations and CDM. This is our take on what is real, what is under review, and where you should focus.

1. LOLER and PSSR: Under Review, Not Rewritten (Yet)

The Government has asked HSE to review two cornerstone regulations:

• Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER)
• Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 (PSSR)

This sits under the Government’s Regulatory Action Plan, which explicitly tells HSE to look at “older prescriptive legislation” and explore changes that reflect technological advances and the reliability of modern work equipment.

A Call for Evidence ran from October to November 2025. That is fact. The outcomes are not.

Areas that the review may include based on the framing in government and industry commentary:

• Administrative burden
  • Whether current inspection and certification frequencies are proportionate to real-world risk.
• Use of technology
  • How smart sensors, remote monitoring, data-loggers and condition-based maintenance could sit alongside or replace some traditional “time-based” checks.
• Competence
  • Whether expectations for “competent persons” need tightening, including how experience, training and authorisation are evidenced.

No draft regulations have been published yet. So if anyone claims “from 2026 LOLER will require X,” ask them to show you the statutory instrument.

How The Safety Department can help

Right now, the sensible play is to:

• Stress-test your current lifting and pressure systems arrangements against existing LOLER, PSSR and PUWER requirements.
• Map where you already use digital records, condition monitoring and remote diagnostics.
• Identify where you rely on a single “competent person” with fragile succession planning.

We carry out LOLER and pressure systems audits, review written schemes of examination, and help clients move from bare-minimum compliance to a position where any future reforms are an evolution, not a shock.

2. Pressure Equipment, UKCA/CE and Design Codes

If you work with pressure vessels and assemblies, your world is shaped by:

• Pressure Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 (PE(S)R) – for placing equipment on the GB market.UK
• PSSR – for in-service use and inspection. HSE
• Design codes such as PD 5500, BS EN 13445 and ASME BPVC.BSI Knowledge+1

Key points for 2026:

• Market access remains political
  • Qualifying Northern Ireland goods with CE marking can still be placed on the GB market under existing arrangements. That helps some supply chains but leaves others in a UKCA/CE grey area.UK
• Design codes are updating
  • ASME’s 2025 Code update and ongoing changes to PD 5500/EN 13445 affect design margins, fatigue assessment and documentation expectations for new vessels. BSI Knowledge+1

This is less headline-grabbing than the Building Safety Act, but for manufacturers and plant operators it is a live cost and liability issue.

Our support

We work with clients to:

• Check that written schemes, inspection intervals and record keeping actually match the equipment they own.
• Bridge the gap between design-code assumptions and what is installed on site.
• Plan capital replacement where older vessels struggle to meet modern expectations.

3. Building Safety Act: 2026 Milestones and the Expanding Regime

The Building Safety Act is now well into implementation. For 2026, three themes matter.

3.1 Building Safety Levy – live from 1 October 2026

The Building Safety Levy (England) Regulations 2025 come into force on 1 October 2026.

Key points:

• The levy is a charge on certain building control applications/notices for new dwellings and student accommodation.UK
• From October 2026, it applies to most residential developments over a threshold number of dwellings, with local-authority-specific rates and some exemptions (for example, social housing and some small schemes).

This goes straight to project viability, so developers and funders should not treat it as a side issue.

3.2 A wider building safety regime

Government reforms are moving towards a single building safety regime covering:

• Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs) with the most stringent controls.
• Other multi-unit residential buildings that still face new regulatory expectations, even if not classed as HRBs.

For Principal Designers and Principal Contractors this means:

• More projects fall under formal dutyholder structures.
• More scrutiny of design decisions affecting structure, fire and evacuation, not only in tall buildings.

3.3 What we do as Principal Designer

As Principal Designer (Building Regulations and CDM) we:

• Map whether your scheme is caught by the HRB regime, levy, or both.
• Coordinate fire and structural safety information from early design through construction.
• Help clients evidence that they have “suitable and sufficient” arrangements for gateways, golden thread information and resident safety where applicable.

4. PEEPs: From “Should” to “Must” in High-Rise Homes

From 6 April 2026, the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 require:

• Responsible Persons in certain high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings in England to identify “relevant residents” who would need support to evacuate.
• Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) to be prepared and maintained for those residents, linked to person-centred fire risk assessments.

The regulations apply to:

• High-rise buildings of at least 18 m or 7 storeys.
• Certain 11–18 m buildings with a simultaneous evacuation strategy.

This is not just paperwork. It feeds into:

• Design decisions around refuges, alarm systems, wayfinding and management.
• How you brief building management, concierge and fire wardens.

We help clients:

• Interpret whether their stock is in scope.
• Build practical PEEPs processes that sit alongside existing fire risk assessments.
• Feed lessons back into design briefs for refurbishments and new builds.

5. Asbestos: Regulations Under the Microscope

HSE has launched a consultation on targeted reforms to the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and associated guidance, as flagged in its Business Plan.

Areas under discussion include:

• Improving how asbestos is managed in existing buildings.
• Clarifying expectations on duty holders, surveying, labelling and removal.

For Principal Designers, building owners and contractors this matters because:

• More intrusive refurbishment and maintenance in an ageing estate means more asbestos interfaces.
• Future changes may tighten expectations around pre-construction information and the design of asbestos removal projects.

We work with clients to:

• Audit asbestos management plans and how they link into CDM and BSA duties.
• Ensure design risk registers do not treat asbestos as an afterthought.

6. Chemicals and Product Safety: Sector-Specific but Easy to Miss

HSE is consulting on reforms to several chemicals regimes, including:

• Biocidal Products Regulation
• Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP)
• Export/import of hazardous chemicals (PIC)

For many of our clients this is not front-page news, but if you:

• Manufacture or import chemical products.
• Use biocides or hazardous substances on site.
• Operate warehouses or logistics for these products.

then these changes can affect:

• Labeling, SDS content and hazard communication.
• Which products you can legally place on the GB market.

We help by linking these specialist regimes back into COSHH assessments, process safety and emergency planning.

7. Mental Health: Legal Duties by Stealth, Not a New Act

You will hear a lot of confident claims about “mental health first aid being mandatory from X date.” The law does not say that.

What is real:

• HSE has updated its first aid guidance (L74) so employers must consider mental health in first-aid needs assessments.
• HSE press releases now stress that tackling work-related stress is alegal duty, not a voluntary wellbeing gesture, under existing Management Regulations and HSWA.
• Latest HSE stats show record levels of work-related stress, anxiety and depression, and HSE has begun investigating organisational failures in managing mental health risks.

What is not yet law:

• There is still no statutory requirement for workplaces to have trained mental health first aiders, despite campaigns and Private Members’ Bills pushing for this.

So for 2026 you should assume:

• Regulators and civil litigants will look harder at stress risk assessments, workload, culture and support.
• You will need credible evidence that you are managing psychosocial risks, not just handing out an app and a poster.

We support clients by:

• Folding stress and mental health into existing risk assessment and management systems.
• Training managers on their practical duties.
• Designing proportionate approaches to MHFA where it adds value rather than ticking a box.

 

 

8. 2026: A More Honest Compliance Timeline

Here is a cleaner way to frame 2026.

Firm dates

• 6 April 2026– Residential PEEPs requirements go live for relevant high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings in England. com+4GOV.UK+4Local Government Lawyer+4
• 1 October 2026– Building Safety Levy regime starts for in-scope residential developments in England. Propertymark+3gov.uk+3Browne Jacobson+3

Watchpoints (no dates fixed yet)

• Outcomes of the LOLER and PSSR Call for Evidence and any draft amending regulations.NFU Online+3HSE Media Centre+3Addleshaw Goddard+3
• HSE’s asbestos reforms following its consultation.Osborne Clarke+1
• Chemicals legislative reform outcomes.Health and Safety Executive
• Any movement on statutory mental health first aid duties (currently at campaign/consultation stage, not enacted).Croner+4MHFA Portal+4MHFA Portal+4

If anything you plan to tell your board or workforce about 2026 is not on one of those lists, it is probably a forecast, not a fact.

9. Next steps for your business

You can’t control the pace of regulation, but you can choose how ready you are.

Questions to ask yourself now:

• Lifting and pressure systems
  • Are our LOLER, PSSR and PUWER arrangements in good enough shape that we could adopt digital and risk-based approaches without starting from scratch?
• Building safety and PEEPs
  • Do we know which of our buildings and projects are caught by the Building Safety Levy, HRB regime and PEEPs rules?
• Asbestos and chemicals
  • Would a regulator or court say our asbestos and hazardous substances management is credible if rules tighten?
• Mental health
  • Could we evidence a coherent risk-based approach to work-related stress, or are we relying on a wellbeing week and a helpline?

If you are not comfortable with the answers, that is where we come in.

The Safety Department can act as your outsourced QHSE team, Principal Designer and critical friend. We help you separate noise from real change, then get the basics right so future reforms are an adjustment, not a crisis.