Law: what you need to know
Health and Safety Offences Act 2008
Headlines
- New law means bigger fines for health and safety crimes
- Prison an option for more health and safety offenders
- Health and safety penalties now comparable to environment and
food law
What is it?
The Health and Safety Offences Act increases penalties and gives
the courts greater sentencing powers for organisations that break
health and safety law. Its aim is to provide more of a deterrent to
rogue organisations gambling with the health and safety of their
employees and others.
The Act was introduced as a Private Member’s Bill. It was
progressed through the House of Commons by Keith Hill MP, and the
House of Lords by Lord Bruce Grocott.
When is it law?
The Act will come into force on 16 January 2009. It covers Great
Britain and Northern Ireland.
Why has it been introduced?
For a number of years, courts have expressed their frustration
over not being able to hand down tougher sentences for health and
safety offences. At the same time, a broad consensus has developed
among stakeholders, including IOSH, that more serious sentences are
needed.
The higher penalties under the new Act were first recommended
following a 1999 review by the Home Office, Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions, and Health and Safety
Executive. In 2000, in its Revitalising Health and Safety strategy,
the government pledged to seek an early parliamentary opportunity
to give courts greater sentencing powers for health and safety
crimes. In the consultation leading up to the publication of the
strategy, the question of penalties generated the most responses
– the overwhelming message was that penalties were
inadequate.
In 2005/06, the average penalty per conviction was just under
£10,000. If untypical large fines (more than £100,000) are taken
out, the average fine was just under £5,000. Provisional figures
for 2006/2007 are around £15,000 for the average penalty per
conviction and just under £9,000 if fines of over £100,000 are
excluded.
What difference will it make?
The Act amends section 33 of the Health and Safety at Work Act
1974, and raises the maximum penalties available to the courts for
certain health and safety offences.
The Act:
- increases the maximum fine for the lower courts from £5,000 to
£20,000 for most health and safety offences
- introduces unlimited fines for higher courts
- makes imprisonment an option for more offences in the lower and
higher courts
- makes certain offences that can currently be tried only in the
lower courts triable in either the lower or higher courts. This
opens up the potential for larger penalties
The new Act brings the fines under health and safety law closer
into line with those under comparable legislation – for example,
environmental and food safety laws.
What do I need to do now?
Brief your directors, senior and other managers on these changes
but remember that legal duties haven’t changed. Use it as an
opportunity to refocus attention on the need to lead and manage
health and safety effectively. They should take the opportunity to
review how adequate the organisation’s health and safety management
is, and to get expert advice on how to make improvements. Good
employers and diligent directors and managers have nothing to worry
about.
Watch this space
The Act doesn’t come into force until the New Year. The
Sentencing Guidelines Council will need to update its guidance so
that courts have the up-to-date advice they need.
Look out for the courts awarding increased fines and custodial
sentences for health and safety offences, but expect that the new
powers will be used proportionately and sensibly with prison
reserved for the most serious of offences.
It will be interesting to monitor the annual average fine per
conviction.
IOSH viewpoint
IOSH has worked with Keith Hill MP to promote the Health and
Safety Offences Bill, producing a supportive press release,
bringing the Bill to the attention of members in the Safety and
Health Practitioner and highlighting its importance in discussions
with MPs and peers across all three major political parties.
Now that the Bill has made it on to the statute book, we believe
it will send a strong message to employers that health and safety
offences are treated just as seriously as other breaches of law
where people can be killed or seriously injured. But we believe
that legal sanctions are just one part of an overall prevention
strategy, based on improving national competence in health and
safety management. Our aim is to prevent the work injuries and ill
health that devastate people’s lives and to help make sure more
employers take the right action to protect their workers.
Related links:
Seriously fun: reaching the summit
Health and safety professionals don’t like risks? We
think not. In Connect, we’re running Seriously Fun, Dangerously
Safe, to profile the extreme sports and high risk jobs our members
are involved in.
Trekking through the dark in temperatures close to -10°C doesn’t
sound like much fun, but for IOSH member Phil Blomberg it was just
part of fulfilling his lifelong ambition to conquer Mount
Kilimanjaro.
What started as a teenage interest in mountain-walking has since
become a passion for Phil. He's already tackled peaks in the UK,
Canada, Spain and Scandinavia but in September he thought it was
time to try something more testing.
Phil wanted to combine something he loved with making a
contribution to the charity he co-founded in 1997. The Notables is
a community music project that helps to enhance the communication
skills and self esteem of adults with learning disabilities.
“I am a musician and I knew people that
worked with adults with learning difficulties, and knowing what
music can do by bringing people together and teaching them new
skills, it seemed a great idea to set something up where people are
given the opportunity to do this.”
Phil's successful trek raised £3,000 for the charity, which will
mainly go towards the cost of transport. Many members of the
charity are vulnerable, so it’s particularly important that they
are taken to and from the concerts they perform in safely and
comfortably.
To do the trek, Phil had to be mentally and physically ready. He
was already fit enough to tackle the climb, but he had to prepare
himself mentally for the conditions.
“Because the mountain is so high up – roughly
5,895 metres – you are faced with the possibility of getting
altitude sickness, hypothermia and other illnesses. It can be
life-threatening. The oxygen level at the summit is 50 per cent
lower than the air at sea level and this can be extremely hard to
get used to.”
Phil took advice to help him adjust.
“We were told to walk no faster than a mile
an hour. Any more than that and you’re overstepping your body’s
ability to absorb oxygen fast enough. Even though it’s such an
important thing to remember, you have to really concentrate on
taking your time.”
Expert support was vital. The UK-based charity tour operator
Charity Challenge placed Phil with a team of African mountain
guides from the African Walking Company.
“We were fortunate to have a really good team
to trek with. They had plenty of experience and their enthusiasm
and energy were remarkable.”
Being first time trekkers meant that Phil and his team of 16
weren’t allowed to carry tents or food - their luggage limit was
10kg. Instead, the African walking group of 56 had to carry all the
equipment.
“It may seem like a strenuous job having to
carry everything but they are very experienced and, unlike us, they
are acclimatised. So while we had to take our time they could
charge on ahead and be setting up the next camp.”
Throughout the trek Phil was constantly thinking about the
safety implications. Using his knowledge and experience he made
sure that he was warm enough in the -10°C temperatures, used
support sticks if he needed to and kept hydrated.
“Having the experience of trekking and being
a health and safety professional meant that I was instinctively
doing things in a safe way.”
It took Phil and the team seven days to get from the base to the
summit, walking for a maximum of six hours a day.
During the final stint, Phil experienced something that left him
terrified.
“The final push from the last camp to the
summit was done at midnight. It was a beautiful night with a full
moon and clear sky. But it was a psychologically challenging
experience because a fear set in and we were left feeling scared
stiff that we were going to meet a barrier or illness at the last
point.
“It was an amazing sense of achievement,
though. Once you reach the top you finally have a chance to take it
all in and you realise what you’ve just done. We were above two
layers of cloud which gave a fantastic view, and it was the first
time I’d been that close to glaciers before.”
Phil is already planning his next few treks, which again will
help to raise money for The Notables.
“I want to tackle mountains in South America,
the Himalayas and any mountains that present a unique
challenge.”
Factfile:
- Phil is a member of the Bristol and West Branch and has
belonged to IOSH since 2005
- He is a Regional Health and Safety Manager for facilities
maintenance company Integral
- Mount Kilimanjaro is an inactive volcano in north eastern
Tanzania
Links:
- The Notables
Foundation
- Charity
Challenge
60 second interview
Ian Hannah, Health and Safety Officer for
Elizabeth Finn Care Homes, talks to Connect.
What’s one of the most memorable experiences you have
had in your health and safety career?
would say that, throughout my career, changing the health
and safety culture and getting people more interested and
involved have been memorable experiences.
What do you get out of your job?
I get satisfaction from making changes and seeing them happen,
as well as giving something back.
What issues can you see coming up in your
sector?
Manual handling and fire are two key issues we face, and will
continue to face.
With manual handling being an issue, what are you doing
to safeguard your employees?
From the basics, such as risk assessments and training, to using
bath hoists and engineering-in anything that can help cut down on
accidents or injuries.
What approach to your job sets you aside from the
perceived public image of health and safety people being
bureaucratic busybodies?
I apply common sense and don’t pay attention to what the press
says.
Do you want to be considered for a 60 Second Interview?
Contact the e-Editor.
Quote Me
IOSH gets its message across...
Daily Telegraph
IOSH President Ray Hurst hit back at a story in the Daily
Telegraph claiming health and safety had banned pitchforks and
broomsticks from a pre-school’s Hallowe’en pumpkin party. In a
letter he said:
“It seems to me that health and safety is
once again being used as a convenient excuse for some Hallowe’en
hiccups. The real reason seems to me to be because of the behaviour
of some of the children with these items, rather than for any real
‘health and safety’ reasons. Health and safety professionals are
not here to stop kids having fun at Hallowe’en parties.”
BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show
Ray Hurst appeared on the Jeremy Vine Show to respond
to a story about people being banned by the Forestry Commission
from collecting firewood on health and safety grounds. He said:
"Unfortunately, it’s sometimes too easy for
organisations to use the term ‘health and safety’ to hide behind,
preventing activities that have previously been enjoyed for
years. Is this an example of that?”
Daily
Mirror
Ray responded to the Daily Mirror about a story blaming
health and safety for a town’s Christmas lights having to be taken
down because of being too heavy. He wrote:
“The lights don’t have to go out on Christmas
celebrations. I’m confident a sensible solution can be reached.
Last year, the Christmas lights in St Neots came crashing down
seriously injuring a mother with a pushchair, and in 2005 they also
fell down in Colchester. In Colchester, they’ve now identified a
simple and cost-effective solution to prevent it from happening
again.”
Press Association
Ray’s comments on the Health and Safety (Offences) Bill were
picked up by the Press Association and published on its
national newswire service. He said:
"We believe that the current fines handed out
for health and safety offences don’t reflect the gravity of the
crimes being committed. The average fine on conviction is only just
over £15,000 and if you remove the unusually large fines in the
most serious cases, the figure is only just over £8,000. These
fines are peanuts when compared to the £121.5 million fine levied
on BA for price-fixing.”
Health and Safety (Education and Training) Bill
The IOSH-backed Health and Safety (Education and Training) Bill
was read under the Ten Minute Rule in the House of Commons. George
Howarth, MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East, introduced the
Bill, saying:
“It focuses on what I believe is the most
effective tool in improving safety and health skills: education and
training. It’s vital that we look to incorporate health and
safety awareness into education before our young people begin
work-based learning or start work, and that we provide adequate
supervision and induction training, so that fewer lives are
avoidably damaged."
Lifetime Achievement Award
The IOSH/Sypol Lifetime Achievement Award was handed to
Professor Peter McKie CBE, the chair of the Health and Safety
Executive for Northern Ireland. Speaking at the recent SHP IOSH
Awards, he said:
“All my efforts have been focused on getting
business leaders to realise that legally, morally and for plain
good business reasons, they have to lead on safety processes. It’s
not something they can delegate down the line. It just seems so
obvious that to be a good business leader your major responsibility
is the welfare of those people who work for you."