There is still no UK law that requires an employer to appoint a mental health first aider or to put staff through mental health training. What has changed is enforcement. The Health and Safety Executive now treats work-related stress as a hazard to be assessed and controlled like any other, inspectors are asking to see stress risk assessments, and the duty to provide staff with adequate training under existing health and safety law is being read to include the psychological risks of the job. On top of that, MHFA England consulted in late 2025 on workplace mental health first aid standards, and a further attempt to legislate is expected. For most employers the practical position is the same: if you have no stress risk assessment, no trained managers and no mental health first aid provision, you are already exposed.
This guide separates what employers are legally required to do today from what is being proposed, so you can decide what to put in place and what to watch. It is written for owners, HR managers and health and safety leads, and it does not overstate the law.
What the law requires now
A duty of care that covers mental health
Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees. Health includes mental health. That has been the legal position for fifty years; what is new is that HSE is acting on it.
A stress risk assessment
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which employees are exposed at work. HSE is explicit that work-related stress is one of those risks. An employer with five or more staff must record the assessment. HSE’s Management Standards give the framework: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. An inspector who asks for your stress risk assessment and is told you do not have one will treat that as a breach in the same way as a missing manual handling or COSHH assessment.
Information and training
The same regulations, and section 2 of the Act, require employers to provide adequate information, instruction and training on the risks staff face. Where the risk assessment identifies stress, workload, lone working, customer aggression or trauma exposure as significant, training managers to recognise and respond to those risks is the obvious control. HSE’s guidance to employers now specifically recommends considering mental health first aid as part of the first aid needs assessment under the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981.
The Equality Act
A mental health condition that has a substantial, long-term effect on day-to-day activities is a disability under the Equality Act 2010. That triggers the duty to make reasonable adjustments and the prohibition on discrimination arising from disability. Managers who have never been trained to recognise a mental health condition, or to have a conversation about adjustments, are how employers end up at tribunal. Our guide to reasonable adjustments in the workplace covers the mechanics.
What HSE is doing about it
HSE’s Working Minds campaign has been running since 2021 and its message has hardened each year: managing work-related stress is a legal duty, not a wellbeing benefit. Reducing work-related ill health, with a specific focus on stress and mental health, is one of HSE’s stated strategic objectives, and inspectors are now asking about psychosocial risk during routine visits alongside physical hazards. The scale explains why. HSE’s statistics attribute just over half of all work-related ill health to stress, depression or anxiety, with each affected worker losing almost 23 working days on average. The 2024/25 figures, published in November 2025, recorded 964,000 workers affected and 22.1 million working days lost, both sharply up on the year before.
Enforcement so far has been improvement notices and inspection findings rather than prosecutions, but the direction is clear, and an improvement notice is a public record that follows the business.
What is coming
Workplace mental health first aid standards
In October 2025 MHFA England opened a consultation on national standards for workplace mental health first aid, covering how many trained people an employer should have, how they are supported and how the role is refreshed. Standards are not law, but they would give HSE, insurers and tribunals a benchmark for what a reasonable employer does, which in practice is how “reasonably practicable” gets defined.
A renewed attempt to legislate
The Mental Health First Aid in the Workplace Bill, a private member’s bill that would have required employers to provide mental health first aid alongside physical first aid, was debated in 2023 and fell before the general election. Campaigners have been clear that they intend to bring it back. Nothing has been enacted, and any new bill would take time to pass, but the political consensus behind it has not gone away.
The Employment Rights Act 2025
The Employment Rights Act received Royal Assent in December 2025 and its provisions commence in stages from 2026 onward. It does not mandate mental health training. It does change the wider employment landscape, including day-one rights and stronger protections against harassment, which raise the cost of poorly handled absence, performance and grievance cases where mental health is a factor. Well trained managers are the mitigation.
What a defensible position looks like in 2026
- A written stress risk assessment using the HSE Management Standards, reviewed annually and after any significant change, with actions recorded and closed.
- Mental health first aid provision proportionate to the size and risk of the business, included in the first aid needs assessment. A small office might need one trained person; a shift-based site with lone workers and customer-facing staff needs more, across all shifts.
- Trained managers. Line managers are the people who spot the change in a colleague, have the first conversation and decide whether an adjustment is needed. They need more than an awareness session.
- Awareness for all staff, so that people know what support exists and stigma does not stop them using it.
- A record of all of it. Training certificates, the risk assessment, the needs assessment and the policy are the evidence an inspector or a tribunal will ask for.
Which training fits which role
- Level 1 Mental Health Awareness for all staff: a three to four hour foundation in recognising common conditions and knowing where to signpost. Online from £28 per person, or classroom for a whole team.
- Level 2 Mental Health First Aid for designated mental health first aiders: a one-day qualification covering supportive conversations and crisis response.
- Level 3 Supervising First Aid for Mental Health for managers, supervisors and HR: two classroom days or 16 hours online, covering the legal framework, risk assessment, and how to lead mental health provision across a workforce.
All three are NFAQ accredited. If you are building a first aid structure from scratch, our guide to EFAW versus FAW and your legal duty to provide first aid covers the physical side.
Mental health first aid training, Levels 1 to 3
NFAQ accredited mental health courses from awareness for all staff to the Level 3 supervising qualification for managers and HR. Online self-paced, at our venues, or delivered at your workplace anywhere in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
Is mental health first aid a legal requirement in the UK?
No. There is no statutory requirement to appoint a mental health first aider. HSE recommends considering it in your first aid needs assessment, and the general duties under health and safety law mean that doing nothing about identified mental health risks is a breach.
Do I legally need a stress risk assessment?
Yes, if work-related stress is a significant risk in your workplace, which HSE considers it to be in most. Employers with five or more staff must record it.
How many mental health first aiders should we have?
There is no legal ratio. Base it on your first aid needs assessment: size, shift patterns, sites, lone working and the nature of the work. A common approach is to match the number and spread of physical first aiders.
Will mental health training become mandatory?
Possibly. A bill to require it fell in 2023 and is expected to return, and national workplace standards are under consultation. Employers who put proportionate provision in place now will already meet whatever emerges.
Does training managers count as a control measure?
Yes. Training is one of the control measures HSE expects to see recorded against the risks in a stress risk assessment, particularly for the support and relationships standards.
This article was published in September 2026 by National Compliance Training. Regulations change, so always check the latest guidance from GOV.UK for the current position. This article does not constitute legal advice.