This week we have seen 2 reminders that Safety offences can and do result in individual legal action against Company Owners and Directors.

One Director from Yorkshire was sentenced to 8weeks in Prison (Suspended for 12 Months) and his Company fined £20,000 plus costs of £12.5k.

Another Directors from Essex was sentenced to 100 hours community service and fines £4,200 with his business fined £600,000.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 - Section 37 - Offences by bodies corporate states that

1.     Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

2.     Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, the preceding subsection shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

It should be noted that the second paragraph of this Section allows for Volunteers who run sports club, charities and community groups to also face personal prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Both offences predate the Pandemic and this illustrates the length of time such offences can take to come to court increasing worry stress and Mental Health costs regardless of the verdict.

If you want to understand more about the Responsibilities of Directors and other Senior Officers check out the link below.

https://www.barkerosh.com/services/directors-responsibilities

Building contractor and director fined £600,000 after fire risk failings

Following serious and repeated failings in managing the risk of fire during work at a construction site an Essex based building contractor was fined £600,000 and furthermore its director was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and fined £4,200.  .

In 2018 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and by Essex Fire & Rescue Service a number of inspections to investigate health and safety failings by S&S Quality Building Contractors Limited at a construction site at Regent House, Brentwood, Essex after a concern was raised that people were sleeping on site.

A number of failings in fire management at the site putting workers and members of the public at risk.  The environment at Regent House was poorly managed and the construction work was being carried out in an unsafe manner which could have resulted in a fire.

The Building Contractors had previously been subject to HSE interventions after risks of a fire had been identified across a number of sites over several years.  The company director regularly attended the site yet failed to implement improvements from previous HSE interventions.

Pleading guilty to breaching 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £600,000 and ordered to pay costs of £36,894 at Basildon Crown Court on 25 October 2022.

The Company director also pleaded guilty to contravening Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He received a community order to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and was fined £4,200.

After the hearing, the HSE inspector urged businesses owners to seek competent advice and support to ensure they meet their legal requirements as a minimum standard.

In this case it was apparent that the business completely ignored the importance of fire safety measures on a construction site and was led by a director who wilfully chose to ignore the risks despite evidence he knew how to make things safe. This unsurprisingly resulted in a site where risks were also ignored by his workers.

Wakefield roofing company boss given suspended sentence after dad-of-two died in skylight fall

Closer to home for myself and many readers of the website, The Yorkshire Post reported on a case that saw a Yorkshire roofing company boss given a suspended prison sentence following the tragic death of a father -of-two from Horbury who was killed when he fell nearly 40ft through a skylight when working on a warehouse in Barnsley..

The Company were working on a storm-damaged warehouse roof at F&G Commercials Limited in Barnsley when t accident happened.  The Father of two fell through the fragile roof on December 18 2016.

The work required the replacement of more than 300 skylights on a fragile asbestos cement roof which had been damaged in a hailstorm.

Safety nets could not be used inside the building due to the racking that reached the top.

The Health & Safety Executive found Davis Industrial Roofing Limited   hadn't carried out correct control measures. The work was poorly supervised and carried out unsafely.

The sole director of the company, had regularly visited to monitor progress but failed to provide suitable and sufficient fall protection measures and consented to the use of an unsafe system of work.

The Director pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety at Sheffield Magistrates and was sentenced to eight weeks in jail suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

Davis Industrial Roofing Limited pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,557.