There are aspects of health and safety law that are common to any workplace and aspects specific to agriculture and horticulture. The main law covering all workplaces is the Health & Safety ~ Work etc Act etc 1974 (H&S@W).

This Act put civil law into criminal law. This states that a duty of care rests with employers to take care of employees and others affected by work - "so far as is reasonably practicable". This means that an employer has to make a cost-risk analysis and assess on the one hand the risk of the work and on the other hand the difficulty, time, trouble and expense of steps needed to avoid the risks - see LO2

Landowners, farmers and small holdings are usually prosecuted for breach of specific regulations. See Prosecutions in Agriculture for examples of illegal behaviour.