Dalla prevenzione prescrittiva alla prevenzione tracciata? Le trasformazioni dell’enforcement prevenzionistico tra il d.l. n. 159/2025 e le nuove frontiere della conoscenza del rischio

Abstract

This essay examines the transformations currently affecting enforcement techniques in occupational health and safety law in light of the innovations introduced by Decree-Law No. 159/2025 and the most recent technological developments in the field of prevention. Starting from the traditional role assigned to public inspection and enforcement within the model of organised prevention, the analysis shows that recent reforms have intervened less on the substantive content of preventive obligations than on the instruments through which the legal system seeks to ensure the effectiveness of protection. The growing importance of traceability, the integration of information databases, the monitoring of near misses, and the qualification mechanisms applicable to undertakings reveals an increasing emphasis on risk knowledge as a prerequisite for preventive action and regulatory oversight. From this perspective, INAIL’s experimental applications based on remotely piloted systems demonstrate how digital technologies may contribute to the early identification of risk factors and expand the informational resources available for prevention purposes. A similar trend can also be observed in the emerging regulation of artificial intelligence in employment relationships, where traceability, explainability, and verifiability of algorithmic decisions are assuming growing importance in ensuring transparency and oversight of decision-making processes. The essay advances a unified interpretation of these developments, arguing that the evolution of recent enforcement techniques reflects a gradual reconfiguration of labour inspection and supervision, increasingly moving away from the ex post verification of events and towards a permanent infrastructure for risk knowledge and anticipation. At the same time, this evolution raises new questions concerning the relationship between expanded institutional knowledge capabilities, the use of information, and the system of guarantees required to govern its collection and deployment.