Penalties — notices and fines

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) provides for three main systems of enforcement. These are:

• improvement notices;

• prohibition notices; and

• fines or imprisonment.

When an improvement notice is served, the employer must take action to put things right within a specified time. Inspectors have the power to issue an immediate prohibition notice to stop an operation if there is a risk of immediate danger. They may also issue a deferred prohibition notice. Appeals against these notices go to an employment tribunal and can lead to a stay (delay) of execution of an improvement notice. There can be no delay in implementing a prohibition notice if the inspector believes the risk of serious personal injury is imminent.

Magistrates’ courts can impose unlimited fines for health and safety offences committed on or after 12 March 2015. Prison sentences of up to six months, if the case is heard in the magistrates’ courts, or two years, if the case is heard in the Crown Court, can be handed down for most health and safety offences. Judges can impose fines which consume or exceed company profits, even in cases where an employer has not been found to have deliberately cut corners to make a profit (R v FJ Chalcroft Construction Ltd [2008] EWCA Crim 770).