Do Not Pass Go, Go Straight to Jail

The most recent Health and Safety Executive figures indicate that the number of directors being personally prosecuted alongside their company has doubled over the last year. The HSE now appear to be focusing on pin pointing the directors responsible for the company’s health and safety failings, as during 2015-2016 there were 46 prosecutions in contrast with 24 the previous year.

Many directors were not handed a ‘get out of jail free card’ and were sentenced to suspended or immediate prison terms.  Some directors even escaped the HSE’s unyielding clutches as they offered no compelling evidence or withdrew proceedings. It has been suggested that these figures demonstrate a shift in the HSE’s prominence on prosecutions.  Namely, that they are prosecuting the most senior individuals of a business, while overlooking those further down the pecking order who might pose greater culpability. The more senior the prosecution, the bigger the impact on the company and ultimately, the better the win for the HSE.

This will no doubt be causing stirrings and issues in the boardroom for many senior management personnel. However, a HSE spokesperson denies that there has been a shift in the HSE’s objectives and states, ‘it is the HSE’s policy to prosecute directors when we have evidence that they have breached the law and when it is in the public interest e.g. when the director/manager was personally responsible for matters relating to the offence’.

Whatever the intentions of the HSE, the overriding objective is to reduce work related injuries and fatalities by incentivising those individuals with authority to recognise and address their health and safety inadequacies.

In order to avoid the “do not pass go, go straight to jail” scenario, please contact a member from Backhouse Jones’ regulatory team on 01254 828300.