Tougher penalties for rogue employers

The president of Europe's largest health and safety professional body has backed proposals that would see rogue employers face a quadrupling of fines and an increased threat of jail if it becomes law.

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The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill, introduced by Keith Hill MP (Labour, Streatham) in December 2007, aims to toughen up sentences for health and safety at work offences, helping to provide more of a deterrent to stop organisations gambling with the health and safety of their employees and others.*1

Ray Hurst, president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), welcomed the proposals: ìIf the bill makes it into law, it will send a strong message to employers that health and safety offences are treated just as seriously as other breaches where people can be killed or seriously injured. Our aim is to prevent workplace injuries and ill health that devastate peopleís lives and to help ensure more employers take appropriate action to protect their workers.

ìEach of the 241 deaths and 274,000 injuries at work last year are a personal tragedy and so we welcome this ëget toughí approach. For too long, rogue employers have been able to get away with paltry fines*2 for some dreadful health and safety offences. We hope the measures outlined in this new bill will bring an end to that ñ we strongly support the need for sanctions that reflect the gravity of the failures involved.î

Keith Hill added: ìOver the years, there have been repeated expressions of frustration from the courts at their inability to impose tougher sentences for health and safety offences. Maximum fines for health and safety offences are now way behind those of comparable legislation, such as environmental and food safety, and I firmly believe that isnít right.

ìThis bill is not about ruining companies, and itís not about imposing more red tape on business. Itís about preventing needless injury, ill-health and death in the workplace and ensuring proper punishments are handed down to those organisations who cause such suffering. Iím pleased an organisation of the status of IOSH is supportive of the bill, and I hope weíll see it come into law in the near future.î

The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill seeks to increase the maximum fine in magistratesí courts from 5,000 to 20,000 for most health and safety offences, allow more of them to be triable in the higher courts and make imprisonment an option more often.

*1 The changes proposed by the Bill were first recommended following a joint 1999 review of maximum penalties for health and safety offences, by the Home Office, the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the Health and Safety Executive. Following this, in 2000, in their Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy, the government pledged to seek an early parliamentary opportunity to provide courts with greater sentencing powers for health and safety crimes (Action point 7).

*2 In 2005/06, the average penalty per conviction was just under 10K. If untypical large fines (more than 100,000) are omitted, the average fine was just under 5K. Provisional figures for 2006/2007 are around 15K for the average penalty per conviction and just under 9K if fines in excess of 100,000 are excluded.