Courts warned of barrage of ‘guilty’ pleas in health & safety cases

Courts in England and Wales are being warned to prepare for a barrage of “guilty” pleas in health and safety cases after new sentencing guidelines were published while it is expected they will also be observed by Scottish courts.

The Sentencing Council has released what is describes a “definitive guidelines for health and safety offences”, with eye-catching developments including directions to increase the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter to around £20 million from February.

Current guidance indicates that the starting point for a corporate manslaughter offence should be £500,000.

In addition, fines of around £10m for health and safety offences are to be expected in the most serious cases.

Legal experts say that even larger fines may be possible depending on the size of the organisation subject to proceedings.

Individual company directors found guilty of consent, connivance or neglect will remain exposed to potentially unlimited fines and prison sentences of up to two years.

The new guidelines, which have been issued following a public consultation, will come into effect on 1 February 2016.

However health and safety specialists at Pinsent Masons say the impact will be immediate.

Laura Cameron, partner and head of regulatory at Pinsent Masons said: “UKPlc has been sent a clear message today that the regulatory authorities expect Health and safety to remain a key corporate priority. Boardrooms across the country will be taking note, and if they are not already doing so, Directors should be pushing health and safety issues to the top of their agenda.

“Given the stark difference between the current and future regimes, many of those currently subject to proceedings may be well advised to enter early guilty pleas in appropriate cases in order to expedite their cases. Sentencing under the current regime may be preferable.”

She added: “What remains unclear is exactly how larger fines will be calculated. Organisations will be required to submit detailed financial information including turnover, pre-tax profit, director remuneration, pension provision, assets and debt exposure for the past three years.

“Further, the judiciary will be able to take into account the broader context of the business, for instance it may be that a parent company’s turnover is taken into account when calculating the fine for a subsidiary.”

It’s not yet clear how the guidelines will be considered in Scotland. The expectation is that the Scottish courts will be referred to the English sentencing rules as the legislation has UK wide application.

The new sentencing guidelines come after research conducted by online compliance business Cerico found that the number of criminal prosecutions brought by the unit within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) responsible for bringing the most complex cases more-than doubled between FY12/13 (when 24 cases were brought) and FY14/15 (when 52 cases were brought).