The workplace should be a safe environment for everyone, no one should go to work expecting to get injured, and, if an accident occurs due to negligence, there must clearly be penalties in place to ensure that others take similar situations seriously. While health and safety fines have always been fairly stringent, and the HSE have been vigilant in their enforcement, new changes have made them even tougher. Despite ever increasing legislation, it is disappointing to discover that, according to Health and Safety Executive figures, last year 142 people were killed while at work and 102 members of the public died following accidents connected to breaches of workplace health and safety (excluding railway-related incidents). In the hope of dissuading employers from taking chances with their employees lives and health, new changes came into force on 1st February 2016 in the form of a reference document for cases of corporate manslaughter together with all food safety and hygiene guidance.
Courts in England and Wales will now have a definitive guide as to what sentences can be applied in certain cases for judges to refer to. This guidance allows companies with an annual turnover of over £50 million to be fined up to £10 million for health and safety breaches and up to £20 million if found guilty of more serious offences such as corporate manslaughter. For larger corporations and organisations, the maximum fines increase significantly.
Fines in these categories are based on a combination of the extent of the damage caused to a person, the culpability of the organisation, and now the yearly turnover of the company, and are intended as a starting point, so extremely serious offences could attract much larger fines on conviction.
Adopting health and safety policies throughout the workplace has never been more important. Investment in staff training to ensure correct manual handling, correct equipment use and ensuring servicing and maintenance is up to date can help towards reducing accidents in the workplace. Companies will need to ensure that they use all appropriate health and safety equipment such as high visibility clothing though to correctly installed computer monitors, and operate procedures and processes that protect their staff in even the most arduous situations. To ensure they are compliant with current health and safety legislation, employers should carry out a full and thorough risk assessment of the workplace and update this periodically as per the guidelines. Although it is impossible to foresee every potential for injury, showing that measures have been put in place to reduce risk and adopt a culture of health and safety can help keep employers on the right side of the legislation and, hopefully, save more lives.
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