The HSE has made its position clear: managing work-related stress carries the same legal weight as managing physical hazards like slips, trips and falls — and they are backing that up with action. In December 2025, the University of Birmingham received a Notice of Contravention after the HSE found it had failed to adequately manage work-related stress. The issues included overly generic risk assessments, poor implementation of policies, and a lack of staff involvement.
This is not a one-off. The HSE has confirmed it is actively investigating organisations where multiple employees are experiencing work-related ill health. The direction of travel is clear — enforcement is increasing, and expectations apply to all employers.
The scale of the issue is significant. In 2024/25, an estimated 964,000 workers in Great Britain were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, accounting for 22.1 million lost working days. These conditions now make up 52% of all work-related ill health in the UK.
For organisations, this translates into real operational impact: increased absence, reduced productivity, rising recruitment costs, and the hidden strain of presenteeism.
Legally, employers are required under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to assess and manage the risks of work-related stress in the same way as any other health and safety risk. That means carrying out suitable risk assessments, taking preventative action, and demonstrating that those measures are effective.
Crucially, the HSE expects organisations to be proactive. It’s not enough to respond once someone becomes unwell — employers must identify and address the root causes of stress before harm occurs.
The HSE’s Management Standards provide a practical framework, focusing on six key areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role, and change. These are not complex concepts. At their core, they reflect good management practice — manageable workloads, clear roles, supportive leadership, and open communication.
For boards, this means treating psychological risk with the same level of oversight as physical safety. Stress risk assessments should be meaningful and reflect the realities of different teams, not a single generic document. Policies must be implemented, monitored, and regularly reviewed. Most importantly, stress should be visible at board level, embedded into governance and risk reporting.
For line managers, this translates into everyday behaviours: regular check-ins, honest conversations about workload, recognising early signs of struggle, and knowing when to escalate concerns. The HSE’s “Working Minds” campaign summarises this well through five steps — Reach out, Recognise, Respond, Reflect, and make it Routine.
The key shift is from reactive to proactive management. Stress should not be something addressed only after absence occurs, but something actively managed as part of day-to-day leadership.
The enforcement landscape is changing. While recent prosecutions have focused largely on physical safety, the HSE is increasingly prioritising work-related ill health. With a 96% conviction rate and over £33 million in fines in 2024/25, the regulator has both the tools and the intent to act.
For smaller organisations, it may be tempting to assume this won’t apply. But the HSE has been clear: these expectations apply to all employers, regardless of size.
The organisations that get this right tend to do a few things consistently: they take the issue seriously at senior level, equip managers with the skills to have supportive conversations, and build wellbeing into everyday operations.
The shift is already underway — from wellbeing as a perk to wellbeing as a compliance requirement. The question is whether organisations will get ahead of it, or be forced to catch up.
Contact C&W Chamber member Mental Health in Business (MHIB) to find out how they can support you to build a workplace where everyone can thrive. Chamber members receive 10% discount on all MHIB services.
