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The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008: HSE Chair Judith Hackitt welcomes tougher penalties
The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 comes into force on Friday, 16 January 2009. This new Act will increase penalties and provide courts with greater sentencing powers for those who break health and safety law, and is being welcomed by the Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Judith Hackitt said:
" This Act gives lower courts the power to impose higher fines for some health and safety offences. It is right that there should be a real deterrent to those businesses and individuals that do not take their health and safety responsibilities seriously. Everyone has the right to work in an environment where risks to their health and safety are properly managed, and employers have a duty in law to deliver this.
"Our message to the many employers who do manage health and safety well is that they have nothing to fear from this change in law. There are no new duties on employers or businesses, and HSE is not changing its approach to how it enforces health and safety law. We will retain the important safeguards that ensure that our inspectors use their powers sensibly and proportionately. We will continue to target those who knowingly cut corners, put lives at risk and who gain commercial advantage over competitors by failing to comply with the law".
Following its successful Third Reading in the House of Lords on 10 October, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 received Royal Assent on 16 October and comes into force on 16 January 2009. The Act fulfils a longstanding Government and HSE commitment to provide the courts with greater sentencing powers for health and safety crimes. The effect of the Act is to:
- raise the maximum fine which may be imposed in the lower courts to £20,000 for most health and safety offences;
- make imprisonment an option for more health and safety offences in both the lower and higher courts;
- make certain offences, which are currently triable only in the lower courts, triable in either the lower or higher courts.
Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 receives Royal Assent
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) welcomes the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 which received Royal Assent on Thursday the 16th October 2008.
Welcoming the announcement, HSE Chair Judith Hackitt said: "The new Act sends out an important message to those who flout the law. However, good employers and good managers have nothing to fear. In fact, they have much to gain.
"I want to remind businesses that there are no changes to their existing legal duties and that important safeguards are in place to ensure these new powers will be used sensibly and proportionately.
"Our enforcement policy targets those who cut corners, gain commercial advantage over competitors by failing to comply with health and safety law and who put workers and the public at risk."
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.
This Act provides for new offences of corperate manslaughter (corporate homicide in Scotland) where an organisation's gross negligence has led to the death of an employee or member of the public.
Control of Noise at work Regulations.
These Regulations, which came into force in 2006, were extended to exposure to noise at work in the music and entertainment sectors on the 6th April 2008.
Training Failures costing economy £30 billion a year!
Employer’s failure to provide adequate safety training for millions of workers is costing the economy more than £30 billion a year, according to the British Safety Council (BSC).
The BSC’s survey Safe and Sound? found that 62 per cent of workers (two in three) had received little or no health and safety training from their employers. Last year in Britain six million days were lost due to workplace injury – and 241 people were killed, the highest record overall figure since 2001/02. That equates to one death at work every working day.
The annual bill for employers in payouts and costs for accidents and injuries at work is £7.8 billion, which is the equivalent of £250 per second. And with a cost to the overall economy of £31.8 billion, the health and safety risk is costing the nation £1000 every second or £500 for every man woman and child per year. That’s the equivalent of ten brand new hospitals every year.
The BSC’s survey also investigated attitudes towards environmental practices in the workplace. It revealed that two out of every three employees think the companies they work for should be doing more to tackle climate change. In addition, 75 per cent of employers with businesses of more than 250 employees admit that their companies could do more to reduce the environmental impact.