Five technology companies – Evercam, Comet Analysis, PLINX, Pillar, and Navatech – are participating in the Smarter Regulation Sandbox, a six-month initiative funded by the Government Office of Technology Transfer, to develop and pilot digital products that use information shared by the regulator. These initiatives cover multiple use cases, including automated access control, fatigue management, visual analytics, data-driven risk analysis, and AI-assisted assessment of health and safety regulations.

The technology companies are working with construction and infrastructure partners, regulators, and industry mentors to understand how to shape their products for use in industry. Partners include Balfour Beatty, Kier, Heathrow Airport, Getlink (formerly Groupe Eurotunnel), EDF Energy, Ferrovial, Colas, FTSQUARED, Digital Realty, AXA, Zurich Insurance Group, LV, City of London Corporation, The British Standards Institution, and The Better Regulation Executive (part of Department for Business and Trade).

Dr Maurizio Pilu, Managing Director at Safetytech Accelerator, comments: “Regulatory innovation has become a very hot topic and this collaboration to shape a future of health and safety regulation could not be more timely. There are multiple new technologies to improve workplace safety, wellbeing, and productivity in construction, and we can do much more with digitised regulation and regulatory data. The UK Government is encouraging industry and regulators to collaborate and has made boosting productivity through the use of its data and regulatory innovation a key priority. We look forward to continuing our work with Discovering Safety and our other partners in the Smarter Regulation Sandox and to sharing the outcomes soon.”

Dr Helen Balmforth, Head of Data Analytics at Health and Safety Executive and Programme Director on Discovering Safety, comments: “We want to be at the forefront of regulatory innovation and leadership and ensure that organisations can use our data wisely to support advances in industry. The Smarter Regulation Sandbox will demonstrate how technology can make health and safety regulatory information more accessible to accelerate compliance, improve efficiency and productivity, and reduce regulatory burdens on industry, while also supporting innovators to bring digital products to market.”