Safe at Heart
Our safety philosophy
Safe at Heart is HS2’s enduring commitment to health, safety and wellbeing. It means everyone working on, or affected by, this programme goes home safe and well every day.
More than 30,000 people are building HS2, and every one of them has the right to go home safe and well, as do the communities living alongside our sites.
This commitment applies to everyone, whether you’re on site or in an office, working for HS2 Ltd or for one of our delivery partners. It brings together physical safety, long-term health and mental wellbeing as one responsibility, and it remains constant as the programme changes, through construction, systems installation and railway operations.
How we work together
Five shared behaviours define how we work together across HS2 and our supply chain:
- Consistency means applying standards the same way, on every site and in every office.
- Openness means speaking up when something’s not right, and being heard when you do.
- Inclusion means making sure the people closest to the risk are involved in decisions.
- Challenge means questioning decisions or situations that do not feel right, without fear.
- Planning means identifying and managing risk before work starts, not reacting once problems happen.
These are not abstract values. They are practical expectations that guide decision-making, shape relationships and support effective delivery.
What we’re focusing on
Our work is organised around seven focus areas of equal priority: health, safety and wellbeing of our people, occupational health and wellbeing, informed learning, public and community, safe supply chain management, health and safety by design, and safe railway operations.
Health is as important as safety on HS2. Physical safety, long-term health and mental wellbeing are equally important. If you’re struggling, we’ll treat it as a health issue.
Our strategic goal
To deliver a sustained improvement in health, safety and wellbeing, designing health and safety into systems from the start, leaving a legacy of a railway that is safe to operate and maintain, a more capable workforce, and improved industry standards.
We’ll achieve this through three interconnected phases: closing the gap between our best sites and our average ones today, ensuring a safe transition from civils to systems tomorrow, and achieving a safe operational railway with a skilled workforce and improved industry standards for the future.
How and why we're building HS2
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