According to the UK Health & Safety Executive data the number of directors and senior managers prosecuted for health & safety offences has more than trebled.
The prosecutions involved the injury or death of an employee.
Directors in the dock
The HSE is increasingly targeting the most senior individuals in businesses rather than their employees despite the fact employees are often more at fault.
Of 46 directors/senior managers in the criminal court dock, 34 were found guilty and 12 given prison sentences. The HSE said the figures represented a five-year high.
The regulator commented “Prosecution of directors is intended to hold them to account for their safety failings. The HSE’s policy is to prosecute directors where we have evidence that they have breached the law and when it is in the public interest, for example, when the director/manager was personally responsible for matters relating to the offence.”
New sentencing guidelines
Sentencing guidelines have made the penalty for breaking health & safety law much tougher. Under the measures, the size of the fine largely depends on a company’s turnover/size. How blameworthy a company is, and the harm caused is also considered.
The increasingly larger fines being handed out include:
- Theme park owners receiving the record fine to date of £5m for a rollercoaster crash
- Film producers fined £1.6m after the star actor broke a leg
- Security company being fined £1.8m for not securing the risk of Legionnaires’ disease
- Care home and its ‘out-of–depth’ manager fined £1.5m
- Manufacturer’s £1m fine after a worker was crushed by machinery
More boardroom less bored-room
Holding senior managers to account for the failings of their organisation and staff is making health & safety a much more serious boardroom issue.
While health & safety has been high on the agenda of board meetings for many years, it has not necessarily been given much weight in terms of time and effort. The biggest impact may be on “medium” sized companies with a turnover of £10-£50m as the fines could represent a huge slice of their turnover.
The worry for directors is that £1m plus fines for health & safety offences will become the norm. This means that serious breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 can threaten your company’s very existence.
For more information on the steps required to protect your directors and senior managers, through robust health and safety management, email [email protected]