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New Sentencing Guidelines for Health and Safety Offences

13/01/2017

Two recent Health and Safety Executive prosecutions have highlighted the seriousness of the new and much tougher health and safety offence sentencing guidelines which came into force in February 2016, applying to breaches on or after 12 March 2015.

The new guidelines will see large companies in England and Wales face fines of up to £10 million for the most serious breaches. They will also allow magistrates' courts to impose unlimited fines for offences as opposed to previously when they were only able to go to a limit of £20,000.

Health and safety, food safety and corporate manslaughter are covered by the changes in the rules which followed a consultation in 2015 and have been compiled in order to provide judges with a starting point when it comes to setting fines for offences.

Businesses Should Take Heed

Laura Cameron of legal firm Pinsent Masons has said that the new regulations should warn businesses that there is no leeway for failing to meet duties and obligations. "Businesses have been sent a clear message that the regulatory authorities expect health and safety to remain a key corporate priority... If they are not already doing so, directors should be pushing health and safety issues to the top of their agenda," she said.

There is a significant difference across regimes old and new and large companies committing very serious offences will be subject to penalties that are ‘fair and proportionate to seriousness of the offence and the means of the offenders'.

The fines recently dished out by the HSE included £183,340 to Mahle Powertrain for manual handling offences plus costs totalling £21,277, and £166,660 plus £12,000 costs to KFG Quickserve for various health and safety breaches resulting in a worker suffering injuries that led to over a month in sickness absence.

How the New Guidelines Work

There is now a requirement for the court to conduct an initial assessment concerning the overall seriousness of the breach. Questions that will be posed will include things like whether there was a risk of serious harm, and this risk will be considered whether or not such harm actually resulted. The courts will be looking closely at the culpability of the offender and at what could have happened as well as what actually did happen.

Fines will be levied on a sliding scale based on the seriousness of the offence, the size of the organisation and the company's turnover or some equivalent measure. Judges will look at a list of mitigating factors provided for in the guidelines, such as assisting with the investigation, evidence of an intention to resolve the issues that were responsible for the incident and an untarnished health and safety record. On the other side of the coin, there will also be a list of aggravating features for the judge to take into consideration. These might include whether the offender stood to gain financially from the offence, and a past history of similar wrongdoings.

Unlimited fines and prison sentences of up to two years will be handed out to company directors found guilty of ‘consent, connivance or neglect'.

The Moral of the Story

Bearing in mind the new sentencing guidelines which have already proved costly for two organisations, the question has to be posed: why risk veering off the official path of health and safety regulations? Not only could a hefty fine result and a possible prison sentence follow, but there is also the issue of the potential loss of part of your workforce. Could you afford it?


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