Abstract/Summary

This study will observe the British state’s capture, release and recapture of occupational health and safety (OHS). The state incrementally ‘captured’ OHS via the passing of the nineteenth-century factories acts. The state developed new forms of intervention that grew in scope and ambition. However, such growth was problematic; the state gradually became overloaded by the accumulation of factories acts. Correspondingly, the state observed a surge of voluntary initiatives to prevent workplace accidents. Motivated by these developments, the state ‘released’ some of its responsibilities to non-departmental public bodies and non-state actors through the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The ‘release’ facilitated a network of non-departmental public bodies and non-state actors to expand and develop into a formidable OHS network. However, within just a few years of its existence, the OHS network was confronted by successive governments that sought to limit its autonomy and ‘recapture’ OHS.