Our history
The Compliance People is part of Newground CIC, a Community Interest Company which delivers professional services, investing its profits in its parent charity Newground Together to achieve the Charity’s ambition; better lives and opportunities for our communities.

The organisation was established in 1990 as the registered charity Groundwork Blackburn Trust, a member of the national Groundwork Federation. The organisation secured grant funding and sponsorship to tackle local issues, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and environment. Groundwork supported environmental action leading on the creation of innovative partnerships between local businesses and the public sector.
In 1992 we formed the Lancashire Business Environment Association (BEA) and a year later established our Environmental Resource and Information Centre, (ERIC) providing environmental information services and encouraging local businesses to improve their environmental performance. Our team educated companies about new environmental Regulations, encouraging them to develop and implement environmental policies to create new business opportunities. Over the next 15 years we provided local businesses with legal updates, resource efficiency services and environment and health & safety support.
In the early 2000s we developed our Environmental Legislation Update Service to keep businesses up to date with changes in environmental law, soon expanding the offer to include health & safety law too. Originally this was in the form of a loose-leaf paper manual with monthly updates, before progressing to a CD-Rom version and then our web-based platform.

Groundwork Blackburn expanded its area of operation to Pennine Lancashire and its subsidiary Newground CIC was created in 2007, with the goal of operating as a social enterprise, delivering services which generated profits to further the support the charity. Through progressing our extensive environmental and health & safety legal expertise into a commercial operation, we expanded our service offering to include management systems support, enabling us to fund an even wider range of community projects.
At the end of 2019 we rebranded our Legislation Update Service (LUS), becoming The Compliance People. After being compliance specialists for over 30 years, we wanted to make it clear to our customers what we do and who we are. Our business has grown significantly over the years, but since the beginning our philosophy has remained the same – to develop individuals and provide first class compliance services to support businesses, whilst giving back to the local community.