How to avoid health and safety fines and offences
Health and Safety ‘policing’ has got more serious in the last few years.
New powers introduced in 2016 mean there is no upper limit to fines dished out for breaking health and safety regulations.
In this article, we’ll show you how health and safety regulations are enforced, how much you could be fined, and why you should take health and safety seriously for the sake of your team, and your business.
How is health and safety regulated in the UK?
According to UK law, employers “must” protect their workers and others from “getting hurt or ill through work”. If you fail to meet this duty, it could result in fines or legal action being taken.
Note: If you want general advice on keeping your workers safe, we have dozens of easy-to-read articles, resources and guides that can help>>. Otherwise, you can find lots of information on the HSE’s website.
The HSE may investigate organisations based on incidents officially reported by a business (via a RIDDOR report>>) or a concerned party such as an employee or customer.
Who enforces health and safety regulations?
Health and safety law is regulated in the UK by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). They provide official safety information, carry out inspections and enforce regulations through convictions, fines and notices.
Note: Most countries will have their own authorities dedicated to health and safety. For instance, The USA has The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). EU countries all have their own legislative organisations but are also part of EU-OSHA.
What happens if I’m inspected by a health and safety inspector?
If the HSE feels something is worth investigating, they may send a health and safety inspector to your workplace at any “reasonable” time. An inspector can turn up without warning but is held by a “code of practice”, detailing what they can and can’t do.
Documentation
During a visit, an inspector will examine your workspace and what you’re doing to keep your workers and others safe.
This may include asking about what your team do, looking at the risks associated with your work, inspecting machines and equipment, looking at your documents, and taking photographs.
Inspectors and those responsible for health and safety
The inspector will want to talk to you about the health and safety in your workplace, including any issues, and your overall experience with H&S. They may also ask about safety standards and practices within your sector. They won’t try to trip anyone up, but they’ll understandably want to ascertain that you understand health and safety in and out of your workplace.
Inspectors and workers
Health and safety inspectors will talk to your staff or their representatives about the health and safety in your workplace.
What happens if an inspector spots an issue
If an inspector witnesses something they think needs addressing they will take action. Depending on the risk, these actions may be immediate or long-term. Depending on the seriousness and immediacy of the issue an inspector may:
Offer advice
–Either verbal or writtenGive a ‘notification of contravention’
– Which tells you about any ‘material’ breaches in the law. Getting a NoC will mean you have to pay the costs of the inspector’s visit.Give an ‘improvement notice’
– This explains what’s wrong, what needs to be done, and how long you have to make changes.Give a ‘prohibition notice’
– Which requires you to stop a certain action until it is made saferProsecute you for breaching health and safety laws
– Prosecutions can be made for serious violations or for failing to comply with notices and make improvements. This can lead to fines and imprisonment.
Notes and further reading:
If there is dangerous or illegal activity during the visit, an inspector may take action immediately, and stop it.
For a fuller understanding of Inspector actions, you can read P2 of this HSE PDF.
If you want to know what an investigation related to a workplace incident looks like, you can read the framework here.
Remember, not every health and safety infraction will be treated the same but if you want to avoid a fine or imprisonment, you should take health and safety seriously!
What are the fines and penalties for health and safety infractions?
If you think that health and safety fines have got more serious, they have. In 2016, the laws were changed so that there are no upper limits for the fines handed out for “Breaches of Duty” in this area.
What do we mean by “no upper limit”? This is what the Sentencing Council says:
when tried on indictment: unlimited fine
when tried summarily: unlimited fine
Offence range: £50 fine – £10 million fine
So an offence can lead to a fine of up to £10 million, or higher when taken to summary and indictment trials.
Examples of health and safety penalties
In recent years, the highest fine dished out was given to an energy company in 2019 and amounted to £5.1m + £1m costs.
Next up was a gas company which was fined in 2022 for £5m + £91.5k costs, followed by a civil engineering firm which paid £4.4m + £87.7k costs in 2023.
These three biggest fines were all related to large-scale explosions or overhead cables but you shouldn’t assume that it requires a “huge event” to lead to business-affecting fines.
Health and safety fines in Lone Working
An organisation can be fined for any type of health and safety infraction, and not understanding the risk isn’t a serious excuse.
We’re experts in lone working, and there have been a lot of companies who will give their team the correct PPE or tool training, but won’t think about their lone working.
In 2017 an electricity company was fined nearly £1 million after one of their linesmen died while working alone. The HSE was apparently “scathing” about the lack of lone worker protections given.
How much can I be fined for a health and safety infraction?
The Sentencing Council decides how much an organisation should be fined based on:
How culpable the employer was
The “seriousness of harm risked” amounts to how dangerous it is, and how likely the risk is to happen
Culpability
Culpability makes up the first of the two criteria when deciding the seriousness of an infraction. For maximum accuracy, we have quoted the next section exactly as it is shown on the Sentencing Council:
Very high culpability
Deliberate breach of or flagrant disregard for the law
High culpability
Offender fell far short of the appropriate standard for example, by:
failing to put in place measures that are recognised standards in the industry;
ignoring concerns raised by employees or others;
failing to make appropriate changes following prior incident(s) exposing risks to health and safety;
allowing breaches to subsist over a long period of time.
Serious and/or systemic failure within the organisation to address risks to health and safety
Medium culpability
Offender fell short of the appropriate standard in a manner that falls between descriptions in ‘high’ and ‘low’ culpability categories
Systems were in place but these were not sufficiently adhered to or implemented
Low culpability
Offender did not fall far short of the appropriate standard; for example, because:
significant efforts were made to address the risk although they were inadequate on this occasion;
there was no warning/circumstance indicating a risk to health and safety
Failings were minor and occurred as an isolated incident
Harm
As mentioned, ‘harm’ is measured by its likeliness (low, medium or high) and the level of risk (A B or C with ‘A’ being the highest).
So, something with a ‘high’ likelihood of harm, and that harm is ‘level A’ (risk of death or similar) would result in the highest ‘harm category’.
Culpability and harm
The most grievous possible offence, on the basis outlined above, would be a ‘deliberate breach of or flagrant disregard for the law’ that had a high likelihood of causing death or similar levels of harm.
These levels would then be measured against the size of a company.
Fines based on company size
Considering all of the factors above (culpability and harm), a company’s fine will also be based on its revenue.
To show the scope of the fines, we have listed the lowest and possible fines for each company category. In each case, we’ll show the fines for the ‘lowest culpability, category 4 incident’ and the ‘highest culpability, category 1 incident’.
Large organisations (with over £50 million turnover)
Very High culpability Category 1 fine range: £2,600,000 – £10,000,000
Low culpability, category 4 fine range: £3,000 – £60,000
—
Medium organisations (with £10-50 million turnover)
Very High culpability Category 1 fine range: £1,000,000 – £4,000,000
Low culpability, category 4 fine range: £1,000 – £10,000
—
Small organisations (with £2-10 million turnover)
Very High culpability Category 1 fine range: £300,000 – £1,600,000
Low culpability, category 4 fine range: £100 – £5,000
—
Micro organisations (with up to £2 million turnover)
Very High culpability Category 1 fine range: £150,000 – £450,000
Low culpability, category 4 fine range: £50 – £2,000
So, as you can see, your culpability, the type of risk, and the size of your company all contribute to your potential fine if something goes wrong. There is a distinct difference between a small isolated oversight leading to a small risk, and a willful disregard of law, leading to a massive risk factor.
What you can do to protect your business from health and safety fines
As shown by some of the facts and figures on this page, it’s important to take health and safety seriously. We cannot remove all risk, all we can do is assess it, take it seriously, and take steps to address it.
We encourage you to use the statistics above to help educate your team on the importance of health and safety in your business.
We also have a library of handy free resources that can help you protect your workers and your business. You can find all of them here. We even have a complete guide to health and safety, here, that can help you explain health and safety to your colleagues.
Protecting lone workers and remote workers
Whether you’re a business owner or a health and safety manager, you’re going to need to look at all aspects of your business to protect yourself from fines and other health and safety penalties.
Many companies are good at spotting risks when they’re in front of them but struggle when their workers are out of sight.
At Safepoint, we provide best-in-class lone worker protection for organisations of all sizes. If you have employees who work alone for any part of the day (and most of you will), we encourage you to get in contact and see how Safepoint can help keep them safe.
Award-winning lone worker protection
We provide premium staff protection, including apps, wearable devices, and our 24/7 staff monitoring service that’s powered by ADT.
Join organisations such as Safepoint the NHS, Labour, Aldi, Age UK, Mitsubishi and Brewdog and make sure your team have the best quality protection. Whether you’re a small or large business, we can help you meet your lone working requirements. Whenever your team are out of site, we’ll be there.
Learn more about Safepoint’s multi-award-winning lone worker solutions. Book a demo today.