When things go wrong: health and safety crimes

Sentencing is too serious a matter to be left to courts, argues Howard Fidderman

On this page
Prosecution record
      - Another fine mess
      - Local Authority woes
      - Exceptional fines
Still failing the Howe test
      - The only way is up
New sentencing guidelines
      - The value of turnover
      - Manslaughter guidelines
      - The manslaughter hall of shame
A parallel universe
      - Alternative penalties
      - Fixed monetary penalties
      - Discretionary requirements
      - Stop notices
      - Enforcement undertakings
      - HSC cool on alternative sanctions
      - Not quite the whole story
      - Limited use of alternatives
Righting a wrong
      - Beyond death
      - “Maybe this time”
      - Beyond fines
Box 1: HSE information and credibility gap
Box 2: Aggravating and mitigating factors
Table 1: HSE prosecutions and fines per offence, Britain, 1986/87-2006/07
Table 2:Enforcement notices served by the HSE in Britain, 1990/91-2006/07
Table 3: Prosecutions following food and all HSE investigations, Britain
Table 4: Fines of £100,000 and above, 1975-2007 (cases)
Table 5: Fines of £100,000 and over as % of annual profits and turnover, April 2006-December 2007
Table 6: Penalties for work-related fatalities, Britain, 1999/2000-2006/07

Nine years after the Court of Appeal concluded that fines for health and safety offences were too low, little has changed from the abject situation that we reported two years ago. True, average fines continue to rise, and the level at which fines were once deemed “extraordinary” – £100,000 and above – is looking less unusual every month.