Who actually does health and safety in the UK, what they earn by grade and sector, and how many qualify each year are all measured — chiefly by the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for pay, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) for membership and its own salary survey, and NEBOSH for qualification volumes, with recruiter remuneration reports from the HSE Recruitment Network and Irwin & Colton filling in the by-role detail. This page pulls those numbers into one citable reference on the health and safety profession as a workforce: pay medians, membership and chartership figures, qualification volumes and by-grade salary ranges. It deliberately stays on workforce, pay and qualifications rather than injury, ill-health or enforcement counts, and every figure carries its data period and named source.
Key facts and figures
- £43,382 was the median gross annual pay for full-time “Health and safety managers and officers” in 2024 (mean £45,065) — ONS ASHE.
- £50,000 was the median salary for full-time employed OSH practitioners in the IOSH 2024 salary survey (2,725 respondents).
- 50,000+ members belong to IOSH across around 130 countries — the world’s largest H&S professional body and the only chartered body for the profession.
- £59,000 was the median salary for Chartered IOSH members in 2024, versus £40,000 for full-time non-members.
- 941 IOSH members achieved Chartered or Fellow status in 2024/25, a 23% rise in upgrades on the previous year.
- 50,000+ people take a NEBOSH qualification every year, studying in more than 150 countries.
- ~£46,400 was the average UK health & safety manager salary in 2026 (median £46,321) across 3,664 salary reports spanning 92 UK areas.
- 69.5% / 29.8% was the male/female split of the OSH workforce in the IOSH 2024 survey, with the female share rising to 39% among those aged 25–34.
All figures are the latest available as of July 2026. The anchor source — ONS ASHE — refreshes annually each autumn, so this page is updated when the next wave lands (2024 revised and 2025 provisional are the current ONS figures, published October 2025). The IOSH “Our Impact” report is annual, the recruiter salary reports publish each January to February, and the IOSH salary survey runs roughly every two years (last fieldwork early 2024).
What is the average health and safety salary in the UK?
£43,382 was the median gross annual pay for full-time employees in the occupation ONS classifies as “Health and safety managers and officers” in 2024, with a mean of £45,065, according to ONS ASHE Table 14 (2024 revised figures, published October 2025). Across all employees in the role — full- and part-time combined — the median was £41,412, up 2.5% on the prior year. The ONS median is the most neutral single benchmark for the profession because it is drawn from HMRC payroll data across the whole occupation rather than from a self-selecting survey sample.
It is worth being clear about why the profession’s own surveys report higher headline numbers. The ONS occupation captures a broad span of job titles, from junior officers to senior managers, and includes public-sector and smaller-employer roles that tend to sit lower on the pay scale. Membership-body and recruiter surveys, by contrast, tend to over-represent qualified, chartered and private-sector practitioners, which is exactly the population that earns more. Reading the ONS median alongside the IOSH and recruiter figures below gives the fullest picture — the ONS number is the floor of what “average” means for the whole occupation, and the survey medians describe the qualified core.
Is there a gender pay gap in the health and safety profession?
~13% is the gap between male and female full-time median pay in the occupation: ONS ASHE recorded a female full-time median of £38,509 against a male full-time median of £44,485 in 2024. That mirrors the wider UK pattern rather than being unique to health and safety, but it is a live feature of the profession’s pay data and worth stating plainly on a statistics page.
The recruiter data shows the gap narrowing but not closing at senior levels. The HSE Recruitment Network’s 2025 Remuneration Report found a 6% gender pay gap persisting at Head of HSE level, and reported that only 24% of the HSE Directors it surveyed were female — so the most senior tier of the profession remains heavily male. The composition data below explains part of the pipeline: the workforce skews male overall, but is markedly younger and more balanced among newer entrants.
How many health and safety professionals are there in the UK?
50,000+ is the membership of IOSH, spread across around 130 countries — making it the world’s largest health and safety professional body and the only chartered body for the profession, according to IOSH’s Our Impact 2024/25 report. Membership is the clearest available proxy for the size of the qualified profession, though it is not a headcount of everyone who does H&S work: many people carry out risk assessment and safety duties as part of a broader role without belonging to a professional body, and IOSH membership spans several countries rather than the UK alone.
Two further figures from the same report describe the profession’s throughput. In 2024/25, 941 IOSH members achieved Chartered (CMIOSH) or Fellow status — a 23% increase in upgrades on the previous year — and 196,200 people were upskilled on IOSH courses across 122 approved programmes and qualifications. Chartered status is the senior professional grade, combining qualifications, experience and continuing professional development, so a rising number of upgrades points to a maturing, more credentialed workforce. For the practical question of what competence the law actually requires of an assessor — which is not the same as holding a particular qualification — see our guide on who can carry out a risk assessment.
How much does a health and safety manager earn in the UK?
~£46,400 was the average UK health and safety manager salary in 2026 (median £46,321), drawn from 3,664 salary reports spanning 92 UK areas, according to the HSE-Network 2026 UK Health & Safety Manager Salary Report (sourced from Indeed data). The regional spread is wide, ranging from £30,055 in the lowest-paying area (Isle of Wight) to £71,419 in the highest (Cumbria) — a reminder that a single national “average” hides large geographic and sector differences.
Recruiter surveys that break pay down by grade show how sharply the role scales with seniority. The HSE Recruitment Network’s 2025 Remuneration Report (2,490 respondents, 91% UK-based) put average salaries at roughly £41,000 for entry-level HSE Advisors and £53,500 for experienced Advisors, rising to about £69,000 for a single-site HSE Manager and £76,000 for a multi-site HSE Manager, then £105,000 for Head of HSE and £147,000 for HSE Directors. The same report noted a modest 3% average salary rise from 2024 to 2025 — a marked cooling from the 15% surge recorded in 2022–23 as the post-pandemic market ran hot.
| Role / grade | Typical salary | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| H&S Co-ordinator | £27,000–£40,000 | Irwin & Colton, 2025 |
| HSE Advisor (entry-level) | ~£41,000 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
| Advisor / Senior Advisor | £35,000–£50,000 | Irwin & Colton, 2025 |
| HSE Advisor (experienced) | ~£53,500 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
| HSE Manager (single-site) | ~£69,000 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
| HSE Manager (multi-site) | ~£76,000 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
| Head of HSE | ~£105,000 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
| HSE Director | ~£147,000 | HSE Recruitment Network, 2025 |
Sources: HSE Recruitment Network 2025 Remuneration Report; Irwin & Colton 2025 salary benchmarks. Recruiter-survey averages are self-selecting and typically sit above the ONS whole-occupation median; Director-level roles also add car allowances of £8,000+ and bonuses of 15%+ on top of base.
What does the IOSH salary survey show practitioners earn?
£50,000 was the median salary for full-time employed OSH practitioners in the IOSH 2024 salary survey, which drew 2,725 respondents — up 17% on the 2,333 who took part in 2022. Because this survey samples the membership-body and qualified end of the profession, its median sits above the ONS whole-occupation figure, and the two are best read together rather than as competing versions of the same number.
Chartership carries a clear premium in the same data. Chartered IOSH members reported a median salary of £59,000 in 2024, up 11% from £53,000 in 2022, against £40,000 for full-time practitioners who were not members. The survey also profiled the workforce’s composition: 69.5% male and 29.8% female overall, with the female share rising to 39% among those aged 25–34 — evidence that newer entrants to the profession are closer to gender balance than the senior tier described in the pay-gap section above.
How many people take a NEBOSH or IOSH qualification each year?
50,000+ people take a NEBOSH qualification every year, with learners studying in more than 150 countries, according to NEBOSH. NEBOSH awards — the General Certificate, the National and International Diplomas and a range of specialist certificates — are among the most widely held underpinning qualifications for the profession, so the annual volume is a useful proxy for how many people are formally credentialing into or up within H&S roles worldwide each year.
On the IOSH side, the 196,200 people upskilled on IOSH courses in 2024/25 (across 122 approved programmes) capture a different slice: shorter, competency-focused courses such as IOSH Managing Safely that are widely taken by managers who carry out risk assessment as part of a broader role, rather than by full-time H&S specialists. Neither figure is a UK-only count, and both mix specialist and general-management learners — which is why they belong on a workforce-and-qualifications page as measures of qualification throughput, not as a promotion of any particular course. For the wider picture of how much health and safety training UK employers provide overall, see our health and safety training statistics page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average health and safety salary in the UK?
The most neutral benchmark is the ONS figure: the median gross annual pay for full-time “Health and safety managers and officers” was £43,382 in 2024 (mean £45,065), or £41,412 across all employees including part-timers. Membership-body and recruiter surveys report higher medians — £50,000 for full-time OSH practitioners in the IOSH 2024 survey and around £46,400 for health and safety managers in the 2026 HSE-Network report — because they sample the qualified, private-sector core of the profession rather than the whole occupation.
How many health and safety professionals are there in the UK?
There is no single official headcount, because many people do H&S work as part of a broader role. The best proxy is professional-body membership: IOSH has over 50,000 members across around 130 countries and is the only chartered body for the profession. In 2024/25, 941 members achieved Chartered or Fellow status and 196,200 people were upskilled on IOSH courses.
How much does a health and safety manager earn in the UK?
The HSE-Network 2026 report put the average UK health and safety manager salary at around £46,400 (median £46,321), ranging from £30,055 to £71,419 by area. Recruiter data shows pay scaling with seniority: roughly £69,000 for a single-site HSE Manager, £76,000 multi-site, £105,000 for Head of HSE and £147,000 for HSE Directors (HSE Recruitment Network, 2025), with senior roles adding car allowances and bonuses.
How many people take a NEBOSH or IOSH qualification each year?
Over 50,000 people take a NEBOSH qualification every year, studying in more than 150 countries. Separately, IOSH reported 196,200 people upskilled on its courses in 2024/25 across 122 approved programmes — a mix of specialist qualifications and shorter management courses such as IOSH Managing Safely.
How often are these statistics updated?
ONS ASHE refreshes annually each autumn and is the backbone figure (2024 revised and 2025 provisional are current, published October 2025). IOSH’s Our Impact report is annual, the HSE Recruitment Network and HSE-Network salary reports publish each January to February, and the IOSH salary survey runs roughly every two years (last fieldwork early 2024). This page is reviewed against each release and the figures here are the latest available as of July 2026.
Related guides
- Health and Safety Training Statistics UK: Provision, Spend & Coverage
- Risk Assessment Statistics UK: Compliance Facts & Data
- HSE Enforcement Statistics UK: Fines, Prosecutions & Notices
- Who can carry out a risk assessment? The competence question explained
- What is a risk assessment? A guide to UK workplace law
Sources & references
- Office for National Statistics — Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (occupation, 4-digit SOC), “Health and safety managers and officers” (2024 revised, published October 2025)
- IOSH — Our Impact 2024/25 (membership, chartership and course figures)
- IOSH Jobs — Survey reveals average OSH salaries in 2024 (IOSH salary survey coverage)
- IOSH — Salary survey (research library)
- NEBOSH — Qualifications overview (“over 50,000 people take a NEBOSH qualification every year”)
- HSE Recruitment Network — 2025 HSE Remuneration Report (PDF, 2,490 respondents)
- Irwin & Colton — Health & Safety salary benchmarks (2025)
- HSE-Network — 2026 UK Health & Safety Manager Salary Report (3,664 salary reports)
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, risk assessment and accredited online training for Risk Assessment Training, part of Online CPD Academy.