There has been very little published about how and why interventions by regulators influence work health and safety compliance and outcomes. This review aimed to identify possible mechanisms that may explain why interventions by regulators influence compliance and work health and safety outcomes, for whom and in what circumstances.

By understanding why interventions influence factors that motivate compliance behaviour regulators can design interventions that more precisely focus on influencing these mechanisms in order to increase compliance.

By understanding for whom they work and in what circumstances, regulators can tailor their interventions to accommodate different subgroups of businesses such as different size businesses and different industry sectors.

This literature review examined research on the effectiveness of the introduction of new regulations, inspections, prosecutions, guidance material, industry campaigns, enforceable undertakings, and voluntary partnerships and incentive schemes. It was found that different types of interventions work differently for large and small businesses.