Health and safety consultation for the electricity supply industry 

A call to action 

At this time when we are facing multiple headwinds, we want to see a renewal of health and safety consultation in electricity supply, with greater breadth and depth of worker involvement.  

Consultation should cover all parts of the industry – from newly emerging to long established – and take place in all workplaces.  

We ask reps to raise consultation arrangements with their employer at their company Health and Safety Advisory Committee (HESAC) and work jointly to review worker involvement in the business to ensure it reaches every workplace. 

We also call on employers  across the industry – from networks to renewables – to review and revitalise their internal consultation arrangements, in conjunction with their recognised unions, with the aim of making it as strong and effective as possible. Company-level HESACs should be reviewed to ensure they function as effectively as possible.  

All opportunities should be explored for involving workers in health and safety matters, including looking at how arrangements work at site level. Alongside this, we are calling for a renewal of the consultation arrangements at a national level.  

The consultation framework history  

The electricity industry has a long history of joint working on health and safety matters. Worker involvement is essential in any workplace to keep staff safe and well, but it is especially important in a hazardous industry like electricity supply.  

Standalone consultation machinery – National HESAC – was created in the late 1970s following the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, although joint arrangements had existed since 1949, shortly after nationalisation.  

In the years since it was established, the National HESAC has witnessed huge upheaval. Privatisation brought new commercial imperatives and regulators. Major technological developments significantly changed the way energy is produced, transmitted, distributed, and stored. New subsectors have been created and there have been multiple new entrants to the industry. All of this has had significant implications for employee health and safety. 

 Yet throughout, unions and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have formally engaged with employers in generation, retail, distribution, and transmission with the aim of resolving issues and agreeing and promoting good practice in occupational health, safety, and welfare. Whether it is 1974 or 2024, tripartism and joint working is vital to delivering safe workplaces. It is no exaggeration to say that the work of National HESAC will have saved lives.  

We are therefore seriously concerned that Energy UK, the main trade association for electricity retail and generation, among other areas, has withdrawn from the National HESAC. It leaves the industry without any national health and safety consultation in these areas, which is unprecedented in the last 75 years. We urge Energy UK to rejoin the committee.  

The challenges the industry faces  

The industry finds itself at a critical juncture, as it faces multiple challenges in coming years. Just as it has changed significantly since the National HESAC was established, the industry will change even more in the years to come if it is to decarbonise by 2035. Against this backdrop, we need more worker involvement, not less.  

Change is having and will continue to have significant implications for employees’ health and safety. It would be difficult to safely navigate this even in the most favourable of circumstances, but the fact that we are in the middle of a workforce crisis makes it more challenging.  

According to Prospect’s most recent members survey, four out of five (82%) people working in transmission and distribution networks say staffing levels are too low in their workplace. More than two thirds (69%) say their organisation is facing skills shortages or gaps.  

Three quarters (74%) of networks staff describe their workload as “heavy” or “extremely heavy” and excessive workloads are the most common factor cited as driving low staff morale. A third (34%) of networks staff usually feel overwhelmed or highly stressed at work. 

Renewed National HESAC 

We want to see a renewed tripartite, national health and safety consultative committee for electricity supply, covering all key parts of the industry and to be attended by representatives of the workforce, employers and the HSE.  

Currently, the health and safety of electricity industry workers is discussed in multiple national forums, often without the input of workers themselves. Not only does this build in duplication and redundancy, meaning that good practice developed in one area is not replicated in others, but it often fails to take account of the ideas, knowledge insight of those on the sharp end. This fragmentation is not in anyone’s interest and does not lead to higher standards across the board.  

Ensuring the constituent parts of the industry collectively discuss and address health and safety issues at a single committee will provide strategic oversight of emerging issues across the sector. It will help find common solutions to address cross-cutting issues, helping newer parts of the industry to learn from older parts and vice-versa.  

While the exact functions and scope of the renewed committee should be agreed by its members through dialogue, we believe the aim of the committee should be to share information, agree and promote good practice in occupational health, safety, and welfare, and to provide high level issue resolution when there are disagreements on health, safety, and welfare matters.  

As a core, this new national committee should include representatives of: 

  • The industry’s four unions 
  • The HSE 
  • Renewable generation companies 
  • Thermal and nuclear generation companies  
  • Transmission and distribution network operators  
  • Retail companies  
  • Operators of new and emerging technologies, such as energy storage 

Membership could be open to other organisations from the sector, who could attend the committee as full members, or to speak or listen by invitation. These could include: 

  • Future system operator  
  • National Skills Academy for Power 
  • Ofgem 
  • Professional bodies  
  • Trade associations from associated industries, such as manufacturing 

All members of the National HESAC should affirm their commitment engaging with the other parties to the National HESAC with a view to improving health and safety standards in the wider industry.  

Employers’ representatives should also affirm their commitment to consulting with and involving their recognised unions in health and safety matters, including making provision for and supporting health and safety representatives as they carry out their functions, and hold health and safety committees at company and, as appropriate, establishment level.  

There is a need to build links between national and company HESACS and build a wider awareness in the industry of the National HESAC and the work it does. Effort should be made to improve two-way communications between National HESAC and company HESACs.  

The expertise of the HSE is invaluable and the agency should continue with its advisory and supportive role, citing good practice and highlighting where the committee departs from this.