Further focus on sentencing for Health & Safety Offences

A construction company has been fined £900,000 after an employee died when he was struck by a retaining wall which collapsed as it was being backfilled.

As this case demonstrates, fines for breaches of Health & Safety legislation have increased since the Sentencing Guidelines came into effect of 1 February 2016. The proposed further changes to the Guidelines will increase the focus on aggravating and mitigating factors and raise the possibility that fines could increase further and/or higher fines will be imposed more consistently.