The Impact of the Smarter Regulation Sandbox

Safetytech Accelerator (STA) and Discovering Safety have now concluded the Smarter Regulation Sandbox (SRS). We are immensely proud of the outcomes and achievements and offer our thanks to all our partners and participants in this programme. This article will outline why we created the Sandbox, what we achieved and what more there still is to do!

 

The Challenge: Simplifying Compliance in a Complex Landscape 

Despite ongoing safety improvements, construction remains a high-risk industry. In the UK alone, 69,000 construction workers suffered work-related ill health last year, and 45 lost their lives (HSE 22/23 statistics).

Regulation is essential for protecting people, businesses, and the environment, but compliance can be complex, time-consuming, and costly. Emerging technologies—such as AI, machine learning, and reality capture—can improve compliance efficiency, yet a key barrier to adoption lies in the inaccessible regulatory data.

The Smarter Regulation Sandbox was created as a collaborative space where regulators, technology companies, and industry partners explored how digitalising regulatory data and guidance could unlock innovation, enhance compliance, and reduce risks.

 

The Smarter Regulation Sandbox in Action 

Safetytech Accelerator (STA) and Discovering Safety (a programme of work led by the Health and Safety Executive, HSE) ran the SRS using STA’s structured Sandbox Approach. Due to the complexity of the challenge, the Sandbox approach was identified as the right methodology and consists of four phases:

• Identifying regulatory challenges.
• Engaging key stakeholders.
• Testing solutions and gathering insights.
• Evaluating results and exploring broader applications.

The regulatory sandbox provided a fast-track environment for innovators with cutting-edge technology to engage directly with the regulator and industry partners. It enabled them to refine solutions in areas such as AI, digital automation, and machine-readable regulations—working alongside regulators rather than in isolation.

“The Safetytech Accelerator are ideal matchmakers – crucially they are informed at a deeper level than the often more superficial options to connect technologies with potential innovation and industry needs.  They build a real understanding of what it is a project needs to achieve, and with the HSE and Industry as a partners have an ideal stakeholder group to test whether an idea has genuine mileage or not.   It’s a great mix – the HSE have vast experience and data, and the Safetytech Accelerator a mission to harness innovation to respond to current and emerging risk, both for people and for businesses.”  – Mark Rushton, CEO , Comet

 

A Model for Government and Industry Collaboration 

The success of the SRS was built on collaboration and delivered meaningful outcomes for key stakeholders:

• Regulators – SRS was led by HSE, with interest from Office Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and the Food Safety Agency (FSA). The Sandbox helped shape machine-readable regulations, paving the way for digital enforcement and compliance innovation.
• Government Bodies – The sandbox aligned with UK regulatory modernisation efforts. Funded by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT), it collaborated with the Regulation Directorate (RD), which is working towards making the UK Regulators’ guidance available digitally through the Open Regulation Platform (ORP).
• Industry Partners – Major organisations joined SRS, including Eurotunnel, Heathrow, Gatwick, Kier Group, Ferrovial Construction, EDF, and Balfour Beatty, alongside insurers AXA and Zurich and bodies such as the City of London Corporation and BSI.  By joining, they gained clarity on compliance challenges and co-developed solutions.

‘The Sandbox really helped explore the real-world challenges organisations of all sizes have building systems and processes that comply with all relevant legislation, particularly when multiple regulators and enforcement agencies are involved, with this knowledge and understanding we hope to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to improve’ – James Bird, Group Head of Health Safety and Wellbeing, Kier Group

• Technology Companies – Five companies—Navatech, Evercam, Plinx, Comet Analysis, and Pillar—were selected through a due diligence process to test digital compliance solutions alongside industry and regulators. This collaboration refined their products, provided critical feedback, and opened new business opportunities, ensuring solutions aligned with industry needs and regulatory expectations.

The sandbox approach was co-developed to ensure effective collaboration between regulators, industry, and innovators. STA helped shape the framework and facilitated engagement through workshops, one-to-one sessions, and rapid sprints, ensuring meaningful progress. Two in-person events further accelerated sandbox projects while also advancing the broader goal of breaking down silos and aligning priorities to support regulatory innovation.

View event wrap up video here 

 

Exploring Digital Solutions 

Five highly ambitious and motivated tech companies tested and refined digital solutions for regulatory compliance during SRS:

• Navatech: AI copilots offering real-time health and safety insights and automated compliance documentation.
• Evercam: AI-powered reality capture, comparing planned vs. actual construction progress for enhanced safety monitoring.
• Plinx: AI-driven compliance checking, automating regulatory assurance on construction sites.
• Comet: AI-driven data analysis, mapping safety standards and identifying compliance gaps.
• Pillar: A workplace fatigue monitoring app assessing real-time worker readiness and safety risks.

Each company collaborated with STA experts, accessed HSE regulatory frameworks and data, and engaged with industry leaders for feedback. Through testing, piloting, and trials, they refined their solutions to meet real-world compliance needs while contributing ideas for regulatory improvements. By leveraging crucial data and working closely with industry partners, they ensured their products were market-ready and aligned with evolving compliance requirements.
The Regulation Directorate’s ORP was also tested with the companies in the Sandbox, providing valuable feedback on its development. One participant called it “a game-changer”, highlighting the transformative potential of structured regulatory data.

Download the collection of the use cases here

 

Key Takeaways and Future Impact 

STA and our partners within SRS are incredibly proud of the outcomes and impacts achieved in such a small space of time. Not only has it demonstrated how digital regulatory data can enhance compliance and efficiency but created a model of government and industry collaboration. Key takeaways also include:

• Advancing Digital Regulation – The project provided crucial insights for regulators and technology companies to shape machine-readable regulations.
• A Blueprint for Future Sandboxes – The Sandbox framework is adaptable for regulators seeking to drive innovation without compromising safety.
• Trust and Collaboration – Direct engagement between innovators and regulators reshaped how compliance is approached but also new partnerships and commitments to work together.
• Growth Opportunities for technology– Many of the technology companies have now signed contracts with the industry partners they were working with. In addition, many are now testing and working with the RD to improve the ORP’s effectiveness.

The Smarter Regulation Sandbox was the second Sandbox that STA has run with the HSE, the first being the Industrial Safetytech Regulatory Sandbox (ISRS). These have set a new benchmark for regulatory innovation, proving that government, industry, and technology collaboration is crucial to breaking down silos and aligning priorities. However, more still needs to be done to move beyond compliance to integrate safety into efficiency, productivity, and risk management.

In response to this, STA has recently launched the OSHX Lab in collaboration with founding members HSE and Heathrow Airport. OSHX represents a step-change in workplace safety—moving beyond compliance to embed safety into efficiency, productivity, and risk management.

Building on the expertise, insights, and networks developed through the regulatory sandboxes, OSHX Lab is designed as a hands-on testing ground for safety innovation—where technology is trialled, refined, and scaled in real-world environments. Crucially, it will also cement the public-private-partnership built through the sandboxes, which is so critical to addressing complex challenges in safety and risk.

Find more info here:  OSHX Lab – Where Innovation Becomes Action