Businesses or individuals who have committed health & safety offences may be prosecuted and if found guilty they can incur very severe penalties -
- In the Magistrates' Court they may be fined up to £20,000 per offence, and individuals may be sent to prison for up to 6 months per offence with an overall maximum of 12 months as well as being fined.
- In the Crown Court, where more serious offences are dealt with, offenders may face unlimited fines, and/or imprisonment for up to 2 years.
Where there has been a death as a result of a failure to comply with health & safety law, a company or individual may be investigated and prosecuted for manslaughter. Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 1997 for example, a company can now be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter if -
- the way in which an organisation's activities are managed or organised by its senior management causes a person's death and
- it amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.
When a company is convicted of corporate manslaughter:--
- It may incur fines without limit. The Sentencing Advisory Panel recommends fines of between 2.5 & 10% of a company's average annual turnover. This could force the company into liquidation.
- The court can make an order requiring the company to publicise the case. This could be commercially devastating publicity.
- The court can make an order requiring the company to take steps to remedy any of the deficiencies that gave rise to the offence.
In certain cases where someone has died, an individual employee of the company may be charged with manslaughter - if an employee has acted in a grossly negligent way and that resulted in the death, for example. Where an individual is convicted of manslaughter, he can be sent to prison for life. Even if that maximum sentence is not imposed, it is quite likely that he will be sent to prison for several years.
