27 November 2018

Ensure Health and Safety compliance or pay a hefty price

UK safety fines rose 80% in the first year of new sentencing guidelines.

Since the new Sentencing Guidelines came into effect in February 2016, the fines handed to those found guilty of safety and health offences increased by 80% in 12 months, despite the fall in the number of cases prosecuted, the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) injury and ill health statistics show.

Under the new guidelines, the level of fine corresponds to the offending organisation's turnover. If convicted of a safety and health offence, large organisations that turn over more than £50m and fall into the ‘very high' culpability category could be fined up to £10m.

In 2016-17, 38 cases received fines over £500,000; the single largest was £5m (for Merlin Entertainments). The 20 largest fines accounted for £30.7m of the £69.9m total. In 2014-15 period – the last full year before the guidelines – when five cases were at or above £500,000 and the single largest fine was £750,000.

The HSE and local authorities issued 11,913 enforcement notices in 2016-17, a 5% increase compared with the previous period when 11,380 were served. Notices issued by the HSE were up 8% from 8,776 to 9,495, while local authorities issued 2,418, down 7% compared with the 2,604 served in 2015-16. Notices issued by local authorities fell annually between 2012-13 and 2016-17. The figures for notices issued by the HSE have fluctuated over the past five years.

In 2016-17 – the first full year that the new sentencing guidelines for safety and health offences were in place – fines reached £69.9m compared with £38.8m for the same period a year earlier.

This is the second consecutive year in which financial penalties have soared. There was a 115.5% rise between 2014-15 (when £18m worth of fines were collected) and 2015-16.

There were 554 cases that resulted in a conviction for at least one offence in 2016-17. This was the lowest number recorded over the past five years; there were 672 such cases in 2015-16 and 619 in 2014-15.

In the manufacturing industry, fines doubled between 2015-16 and 2016-17, from £12.5m to £25.1m. The number of convicted cases however fell 32% from 210 to 159 during this time.

2016-17 is the first full year that the Sentencing Council's Definitive Guidelines for Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences have been in effect in England and Wales.

Prosecutions are now listed on the BPIF website, where incidents have occurred and resulted in a prosecution. Please note, although these aren't generally incidents occurring within the printing industry, they are highlighted as such incidents which could occur.

Below is a document which shows all the most recent prosecutions and advice on how you can prevent this happening to you. 

To find out more about how the BPIF H&S team can help you with either guidance, H&S healthchecks or H&S Seal of Excellence click here.