Comment by ssl232

One of the most important pieces of legislation in the UK that helped improve safety in workplaces was the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which placed a duty of care on organisations to look after the wellbeing of their staff. One of the tenets is to take near misses seriously. According to a health and safety engineer in a course I attended, near misses are like gifts from the heavens, as they show you exactly how something could go wrong despite no one getting hurt, giving organisations a chance to improve their processes. If a workplace accident does occur, the Health and Safety Executive (who enforce the act in large organisations) can levy enormous fines for preventable accidents especially where there is evidence of a near miss beforehand.