L21 was withdrawn in 2013
HSE withdrew L21 — the Approved Code of Practice and guidance for the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 — on 31 July 2013. There is no current Approved Code of Practice for these Regulations, and there has not been one for over a decade.
The Regulations themselves still apply in full. Only the Approved Code of Practice was withdrawn. If you have been told to comply with L21, what you actually need is the Regulations plus HSE's current guidance.
Why it was withdrawn
The withdrawal followed Professor Ragnar Löfstedt's independent review of health and safety legislation, Reclaiming health and safety for all. The review's concern was that the ACOP format encouraged over-compliance — organisations treating detailed guidance as a minimum standard rather than applying the Regulations proportionately to their actual risks.
HSE replaced it with web-based guidance intended to be easier to follow, easier to keep current, and better suited to smaller businesses.
What to use instead
| If you need | Use |
|---|---|
| The legal duties themselves | Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 |
| How to manage health and safety | HSG65: Managing for health and safety |
| A starting point for a small business | Health and safety made simple |
| How to carry out a risk assessment | HSE risk assessment guidance |
What changed in practice
An Approved Code of Practice carries a special legal status: depart from it and, if something goes wrong, you must show you complied in some other equally effective way. Ordinary HSE guidance does not carry that status.
So the practical effect of the withdrawal cuts both ways. You have more freedom in how you comply — there is no longer a prescribed route you are measured against. You also have less cover if you get it wrong, because there is no code you can point to and say you followed it.
What has not changed is the standard you are held to. The Regulations are enforced by HSE and local authorities exactly as before, and breaches can still result in improvement notices, prohibition notices and prosecution.
What the Regulations still require
The duties below come from the Regulations, which remain in force. They are not affected by the withdrawal of the code.
Risk assessment
Every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:
- Risks to the health and safety of employees
- Risks to people not in their employment — visitors, contractors, members of the public
Employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings, and any group of employees identified as being especially at risk.
Principles of prevention
The general principles that must guide employers when deciding on control measures:
- Avoiding risks where possible
- Evaluating unavoidable risks
- Combating risks at source
- Adapting work to the individual
- Adapting to technical progress
- Replacing the dangerous with the non-dangerous or less dangerous
- Developing a coherent prevention policy
- Giving priority to collective protective measures
- Giving appropriate instructions to employees
Health and safety arrangements
Employers must have appropriate arrangements for effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures.
Competent persons
Every employer must appoint one or more competent persons to assist in undertaking the measures needed to comply with health and safety law. HSG65 is now the main source of guidance on what competence means in practice and when external help is warranted.
Information and training
Employees must be given comprehensible and relevant information about the risks they face, the preventive measures in place, emergency procedures, and who the competent persons are.
Young persons and new or expectant mothers
Specific additional risk assessment requirements apply to these groups.
Who this affects
Virtually every employer and self-employed person in Great Britain: the Management Regulations are the framework the rest of health and safety law rests on. If you came here looking for L21 because a client, insurer or consultant asked for it, the honest answer is that the document no longer exists — and pointing them at HSG65 and the Regulations is the correct response.
For smaller businesses, the withdrawal was meant to help: HSE's current guidance is written to be proportionate, rather than assuming every employer needs the full apparatus of a large organisation.