That's one trouble with dual identities, Robin. Dual responsibilities.

I have on my office wall, a bit cobwebbed now, a photo of a worker standing on the very top of a stepladder spray washing the front door of No. 10 Downing street. I don't know who took it, but to whom should they have reported it ?

This discussion is a year old.

It is incorrect to judge anyone else based upon your own personal moral compass and life experience.

Some will intervene whilst others will not - a recent example from the local press involved a young parent asking a contractor to stop burning plastic construction waste generating black plumes of toxic smoke outside their house with the result the young family were besieged in their property by six contractor vehicles and anxiously awaiting police attendance.

"anyone who saw a situation that could lead to someone getting hurt would do something about it", so:

- how many drivers did you stop using their hand held mobile?

- how many drivers parked on school markings did you speak to?

Both situations that could lead to someone getting hurt, observable on a daily basis that you have likely walked (or driven) by.

I often think this.... as previous posts have answered the legal side; I am approaching  on the moral side!

As other have said, it depends on the circumstances. I was working from home last year and the house opposite me (Housing Association owned) were having roof work done by a contractor, no cat ladders, no PPE, generally lobbing stuff around and acting in a  dangerous and unsafe manner. I took a couple of photos (just in case!) and rang the HA to ask if they had any workers in the area. They said they had so I explained my concern and spoke to their H&S manager (who to be fair I did know having worked for another fairly local HA myself previously we had met at conferences etc.). They were pleased I had taken the trouble to call them. I did then see a short while later someone from the HA come out and have a general walk about the road and they spoke to the guys doing the work who then got their ladders off of the van and put them up!

I approached it from the point of view that when I was in an H&S role at an HA I would have wanted to know if any contractors we had employed, (and indeed our own staff), were working unsafely. I also had visions that if they had fallen off of the roof and the HSE came round to see if anyone had seen anything I would have felt very awkward saying yes I saw them acting dangerously and I had ignored it!

On the other hand, in a totally public area where I had no idea who was responsible etc. then it would be a slightly different scenario as I would not know who to necessarily speak to. If I felt it was appropriate,  I might make a passing comment - as I did once on holiday when someone was cutting granite with no eye protection or barriers on a public road and shards of stone were flying everywhere, I just said something along the lines of ‘that's a bit risky hope it doesn't get in your eyes, I think I'll wear my hard hat next time I pass you so I don't get hit by the stone’.... he laughed and said it was OK as he was Cornish??!! That said, when I passed later, he had got some safety glasses on and had put a few barriers up so pedestrians had to cross the road so I think he might have reflected on my comment....