New Health and Safety Law – Employers Face Prospect of Custodial Sentences

Breaches in Health and Safety law could now land employers or their staff in prison, where previously they would have faced fines. The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came into effect on 16^th January 2009 and means that employees or their bosses could now face up to two years in prison for breaking health and safety legislation.

This applies to anyone who contributes to a health and safety offence, even if an accident or injury has not occurred. In other words, if someone plays around or behaves recklessly, and they have been properly trained, they could personally be prosecuted and given a custodial sentence. The reckless behaviour does not need to result in a serious incident, only the possibility of one. The same thing applies for anyone who fails to take proper care for other people’s safety, including, for example, not carrying out a risk assessment or fire risk assessment.

The purpose of the law is to try to get employers to take health and safety matters seriously. Over 200 people are killed every year in accidents at work, and many more are injured. The costs to businesses are huge.

The new law also means that even minor breaches of health and safety rules now carry fines of up to £20,000. Whereas fines were previously related to specific serious breaches, people can now be fined for just about any health and safety offence.

While it has been suggested that custodial sentences will only be considered for the most serious offences, the law gives the courts considerable discretion, so we shall have to wait and see how it is interpreted. Many people expect a rush of prosecutions by the Health and Safety Executive, as they attempt to demonstrate that the law is effective and the consequences real.

The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive, Judith Hackitt, said:

"This Act gives lower courts the power to impose higher fines for some health and safety offences. It is right that there should be a real deterrent to those businesses and individuals that do not take their health and safety responsibilities seriously. Everyone has the right to work in an environment where risks to their health and safety are properly managed, and employers have a duty in law to deliver this.”

The law slipped in rather quietly without attracting much media attention, even though the implications are actually more far reaching than the Corporate Manslaughter Act, which attracted quite a lot of interest and publicity when it came into force last April.

The thing to remember is that the change in the law does not place any new duties on employers, and those following the law have nothing to fear anyway. The Act is intended to target those few people who wilfully ignore health and safety rules and put their staff or colleagues at risk by cutting corners or being careless.

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