New Sentencing Proposals: Corporate Manslaughter, Health and Safety Offences
and Food Safety Offences

CWU's National Health, Safety & Environment Officer, Dave Joyce reports on the latest consultation document from the Government with regards to new penalties for health and safety and food safety breaches:

As branches and Safety Reps will be aware, the CWU was one of the organisations that led the campaign for the introduction of Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Laws plus tougher penalties and Directors legal health and safety responsibilities.

The Sentencing Council has today published proposals for how organisations or individuals convicted of corporate manslaughter, health and safety and food safety offences should be sentenced (see attached). These are now out for consultation. They apply only to England and Wales and cannot change the law, so sentences must remain within current legal limits.

The view of the CWU and the TUC is that any sentencing guidelines must recognise that health and safety offences are criminal acts that should be treated no differently to other crimes involving violence. Any sentences should reflect not only the harm, but also the potential for harm, and should be sufficient to allow the victim or their dependants to have a sense of justice. Most importantly it must act as a deterrent both to the person convicted and to others.

At the same time the CWU and TUC do not generally support penalties which threaten the livelihood of innocent workers should a business close because of a fine imposed on a company, and that may be taken into account, but should not be the sole criteria. The overarching principles developed in the consultation paper are generally sound although, in the case of health and safety offences, greater emphasis should be given to “propensity for harm”, rather than having to identify actual harm.

It is clear from some recent cases that penalties have often been too low. This may be because courts rarely see health and safety offences and are unfamiliar with them, or because the current guidance is inadequate. The proposals would significantly increase sentences in the more serious cases which we have always supported.

It does not however adequately address the issue of disqualification of directors which is available to the Courts. Although it says that courts must consider this, there is no guidance on when that should happen. This is a major omission and must be corrected. In previous consultations the CWU have strongly emphasised the fact that disqualifications should accompany serious health and safety convictions.

Broadly the CWU and TUC would probably welcome the proposals, although we will be making some points over some of the levels which are two low, and do not necessarily accept the conclusions of all the case studies.

However it is important to recognise that the penalties are only of use if employers are actually prosecuted, and given the fall in HSE and LA inspector numbers the and fall in Workplace Safety Inspections by both the Local Authority(LA)  and HSE enforced sectors, this is increasingly unlikely.

As the closing date for responses is 18th February 2015 TUC Union Health and Safety Specialists (TUC UHSS) Committee of which Dave Joyce is a member, will discuss the proposals in detail before meeting the Sentencing Council and presenting a united Unions position.

Source: Dave Joyce

You can download the consultation document from the E-Library using search category 'Government Consultations'

Note: Dave is currently off work on long term sick due to injuries he sustained in a serious road traffic accident.
The NW BTU Health and Safety Co-ord wishes him well and hopes he has a speedy and full recovery.

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