Strengthening safety governance across UCL

The Health and Safety Objectives for 2025/26 have been released, and Objective 4 introduces a significant new step in improving how safety is managed across UCL. 

Objective 4: Strengthen Departmental Safety Governance

Objective 4 is all about ensuring that health and safety is discussed at senior levels within departments. To support a culture where safe and healthy ways of working are part of everyday decision‑making, departments are now expected to include a standing health and safety agenda item in their Departmental Safety Committees or other senior management meetings. Regular discussion at this level helps keep risks visible, actions timely, and responsibilities clear – and ensures safety continues to be integrated into how we do things at UCL.

HoDs asked to confirm compliance

Heads of Department have already been issued with a declaration to complete to demonstrate they’re meeting the governance requirements. Safety Services will conduct a sample of departments to provide additional evidence at the end of the academic year.

Once completed, these declarations will give us, for the first time, a consistent and university‑wide way of verifying that safety is formally on the agenda where it matters most.

Why this matters

This new process strengthens safety governance by:

• Ensuring safety is routinely discussed at senior levels and factored into decision-making.
• Providing clearer visibility of risks across departments.
• Creating a consistent approach to safety oversight across UCL.
• Employees are involved in the development and review of key policies and procedures for managing risks.

Read the Health and Safety Objectives 2025/26

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