Research conducted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that the majority, nearly 99.5%, of companies surveyed were EL compliant.
The survey, conducted by Greenstreet Berman, reinforced the HSE's own impression, created through contact with companies, that levels of EL compliance were high.
The HSE said it had disagreed with the results of surveys conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses and Axa which had shown high levels of non-compliance.
Of the 2,437 companies who responded to the questionnaire, the survey revealed that in total only 0.53% of the respondents were non-compliant.
There was a noticeable variation in this figure according to the size of the company, said the HSE. It said 0.92% of firms with one to ten employees were non-compliant, but that figure fell to 0.6% in companies with more than 250 employees.
The survey also found evidence that many firms continued to have great difficulty in securing EL cover because of its high premiums, which had caused them to take cost cutting measures.
The most commonly sited response, from 50% of respondents, to the increased cost of EL was to "try and improve health and safety performance".
The study was carried out in partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions to help inform the second stage of its EL report.
