Health and safety law is a body of law that protects the health, safety and welfare of the general public and certain defined sectors of the population such as employees. Most jurisdictions have a framework of health and safety law which will usually be enforced by the state using an inspectorate, regulatory control and the criminal law.
The regulatory framework for health and safety will usually operate alongside a civil law system which would allow individuals to bring a lawsuit against a person, company or organization that may have been liable for personal injury or even death. Thus where an employee has been injured through an accident at work in the UK the Health & Safety Executive may instigate a criminal prosecution which may result in a financial penalty (fine) and now could result in imprisonment of those individuals responsible (< ahref="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healt... and Safety</a> {Offences} Act 2008)– however the injured employee can also seek damages for the injury caused in the civil courts under areas of civil law such as negligence and occupiers liability.
