2. The health and safety inspection and enforcement regime

Changes and developments since last year

• The latest TUC biennial survey of safety reps (2014) indicates that there has been a decline in inspection levels by health and safety enforcement agencies over the last two years.

• A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report has provided a summary of changes to health and safety regulation under the coalition government. A final progress report on implementation of health and safety reforms set out that the number of proactive inspections carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fell from 33,000 in 2010-11 to 22,000 (planned) in 2014-15.

• A “growth duty” for “non- economic regulators”, including the HSE, requiring them to take account of the impact of their activities on the economic prospects of firms they regulate came into force as a result of the Deregulation Act 2015.

• An independent review of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) cost recovery scheme Fee for Intervention (FFI) published in September 2014 concluded that the scheme is effective and should stay.

• The Sentencing Council proposed new sentencing guidelines for corporate manslaughter and health and safety (as well as food safety and hygiene) offences in November 2014.

• A Workplace Report analysis in relation to prosecutions following work-related fatalities found that just three directors were disqualified following health and safety prosecutions between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015.

• There have been several more corporate manslaughter convictions, bringing the total number of companies convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 to 11 since the Act came into force.