Supervisors of unpaid work placements (formerly known as community service) are being subjected to increasing abuse and threats from offenders, with staff feeling intimidated and scared at work, according to a union for probation staff.

The Government’s health and safety tsar has confirmed that the ‘burden’ on small businesses caused by the costs and bureaucracy of complying with the law in this area will be a main target of his upcoming review and recommendations for reform.

A steep rise in the number of major and significant hydrocarbon releases – regarded as potential precursors to a major incident – has sparked the HSE to issue a warning to bosses in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Follow-up research by the HSE into the incidence of cancer at a semi-conductor plant in Scotland has found that its workers are not at any increased risk of developing occupational disease. But a pressure group representing workers at the plant dismissed the Executive’s conclusion as “bogus”.

The majority of UK workers would rather keep a health concern or personal issue to themselves than tell their boss or colleagues, according to new research by Aviva UK Health.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has agreed to pay part of a six-figure sum to a former bomb-disposal expert suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The HSE is encouraging body shop workers to do more to protect themselves after new research suggests that many are putting themselves at risk of developing occupational asthma.

The Government should be concentrating on trying to keep those currently vulnerable to long-term sick leave in work, rather than focusing on getting people who are already on long-term benefit back in employment.

The new accreditation scheme for safety consultants will be officially announced in the next few weeks by the HSE, which will run it in the initial stages.

The Ministry of Justice could find itself at the centre of a policy battle on how to tackle the perceived compensation culture.