The Health and Safety Executive and local authorities are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation. Each has a range of tools at their disposal in seeking to secure compliance with the law and ensure a proportionate response to offences. For more serious offences, inspectors may serve improvement or prohibition notices and they may prosecute or, in Scotland, report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) with a view to prosecution.
Latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that in 2015/16:
- The HSE and COPFS prosecuted 696 cases with at least one conviction secured in 660 of these cases, a conviction rate of 95%.
- Across all enforcing bodies there were 11,403 notices issued.
- HSE and COPFS prosecutions led to fines totalling to £38.3 million compared to the £18.1 million in fines from 2014/15.
Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/enforcement.htm
To make sure you are complying with legislation, login to Allianz Legal online to prepare your business's policies and procedures.
Allianz Legal Online helps you to:
- take a step-by-step risk assessment
- prepare a detailed Health and Safety Policy specifically for your business
- produce a Statement of Development, which is filed as part of the business records and is evidence of the state of the business at that particular time
- compile a list of actions required to be done by the business over a specified timeframe to get its compliance up to the necessary standard