What the book covers

The opening chapters trace the evolution of industrial safety law from early British legislation to the contemporary regulatory landscape, providing the historical and legal context against which modern investigation operates. The book then turns to methodology — root cause analysis, the Swiss Cheese model, and systems thinking — with particular attention to how each approach reveals or obscures the organisational and human factors that sit beneath the technical cause.

Subsequent chapters address the practical work of investigation: assembling and managing an investigation team, evidence preservation and handling, interview technique for witnesses in varying states of trauma and reluctance, and the construction of reports that survive scrutiny by regulators, opposing counsel and courts.

The book also examines the role of technology and data analytics in contemporary investigation, the emerging implications of AI for both incident prevention and forensic work, and the legal, regulatory and ethical landscape investigators must navigate — with extensive use of anonymised real-world case material throughout.

Who is it for

• Safety professionals investigating serious incidents in their own organisations
• HSE managers building or strengthening internal investigation capability
• Engineers and operations leaders responsible for incident response
• In-house and instructed counsel handling industrial accident matters
• Insurers, loss adjusters and risk managers
• Postgraduate students and academics in occupational health and safety

From the back cover

Whether you’re a newly appointed safety manager or a veteran HSE professional, this practical resource provides the frameworks, tools, and real-world examples needed to conduct thorough investigations that prevent future incidents and protect your workforce.

Don’t wait for the next accident to improve your investigation skills. Transform every incident into an opportunity for organisational learning and positive change.