Health and Safety Update August 2011

CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER

Cheshire Company, Lion Steel Equipment Ltd, together with three of its directors is to face criminal proceedings under the corporate manslaughter legislation.

The company is the second company following the conviction of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings in February of this year, to be charged under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into operation on 6 April 2008. The three directors have also been charged individually with gross negligence manslaughter. The company is additionally charged with failing to ensure workers safety as required under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act; the directors face the same charge by virtue of section 37.

The charges follow the death of Stephen Berry from injuries he suffered when he fell through a fragile roof panel at the company's site in Hyde Cheshire in May 2008. Lion Steel have been in operation for over 50 years and are a company with over 100 employees so this will be a very different test for the legislation than the previous prosecution where Geotechnical Holdings were a much smaller organisation of only eight employee's.

Geotechnical Holdings were fined £385,000 a sum that amounted to 10% of its turnover, payable over a ten-year period.

DEATH AT WORK TOTAL JUMPS 16% IN A YEAR

Deaths at work rose by 16% in the 12 months to the end of March 2011 according to provisional figures released by the HSE. A total of 171 employees and self-employed people were killed in workplace accidents, compared with a total of 147 in the previous 12 months.

The main increases were in the broad category of ”services” where 47 workers died compared with 33 the previous year and construction where deaths rose from 41 to 50. In the water, sewerage waste and recycling sector, where accident levels are notoriously high, deaths more than doubled from 4 to 10. Fatalities amongst agricultural workers fell from 39 to 34, in manufacturing organisations the figure rose from 24 to 27.

The figure is however 17% lower than the average for the previous five years of 205.

The International Institute of Risk and Safety Management have recorded their concerns as to how the proposed reductions in the HSE budget and inspection effort will further impact on the numbers in the future: "it is worrying to see that there were 27 deaths in general manufacturing and 47 in service industries where the reduction in inspections is likely to be felt.”

SHELL FINED £1.24 million FOR BACTON EXPLOSION

An explosion and fire that happened just before 6 PM on 28 February 2008 at the Shell UK gas terminal at Bacton has landed the energy giant with fines and legal costs totalling £1.24 million.

Fortunately, the explosion happened when no employees or members of the public were in the vicinity. Within the court proceedings the prosecutor Andrew Marshall emphasised that in slightly different circumstances the explosion could have killed 10 people. Had there been fatalities the fine could have been 10 or 100 times more.

Every year we read reports of another huge chemical, oil or gas company being responsible for a major explosion or significant environmental damage. Sometimes people are caught up in the incident, fortunately sometimes they are not, but the risk to human life is always present.

Although, the fine of £1 million is a large amount for a health and safety case, it is a small sum for a company whose global revenues were in the region of $400 billion last year, the question is will it be sufficient to encourage a company who the prosecution described as “sleepwalking into danger, no matter what was brought to their attention” to address these failings effectively?

To discuss any of these issues please contact Jim McGarrity on 01908 692769 or email him at jmcgarrity@geoffreyleaver.com