Environmental health

Health and safety in the workplace

Whilst the main responsibility for managing health and safety lies with the business who creates the risk, the council plays an important role in ensuring the effective and proportionate management of risks.

Types of workplaces we cover

We are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation in the following types of premises in Hillingdon:

  • offices (except government offices)
  • shops
  • hotels
  • restaurants
  • leisure premises
  • nurseries and playgroups
  • pubs and clubs
  • museums (privately owned)
  • places of worship
  • sheltered accommodation and care homes.

Check the enforcing authority for other workplaces

If your workplace is located in another borough, you should contact the respective local authority for that area.


Issues in the workplace

If you are an employee, try to resolve workplace issues directly with your employer before contacting us.

If your workplace has a recognised trade union, you can also raise health and safety concerns with your safety representative.

To report an issue to us, email foodhealthandsafety@hillingdon.gov.uk or call 01895 250190 or 01895 250111.


Accident reporting

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) places a duty on employers, the self-employed, and those in control of workplaces to report a range of events, including certain types of accidents and dangerous occurrences.

If we accept an accident report, a policy decision will be made on whether or not to investigate. This is guided by the HSE incident selection criteria guidance (opens new window).

Report a health and safety accident or incident (opens new window)


Cooling towers and legionellosis

The borough has a number of wet cooling towers, which are routinely prioritised for inspection (or another type of intervention) in order to prevent the spread of Legionella bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires Disease.

Legionella growth and proliferation can be controlled - guidance on how to manage this can be obtained from the HSE Legionella and legionnaires disease index.

In the event of an outbreak of Legionnaires Disease, we will follow the  London Boroughs' Legionellosis Incident Protocol (PDF, 386 KB)

We maintain a public register of all cooling towers registered within Hillingdon. To obtain a copy of this register, email foodhealthandsafety@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Page last updated: 22 Feb 2023