ENFORCEMENT ACTION FALLS IN 2018/19

The latest figures issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show a fall in the number of prosecutions and notices issued for breaches of health and safety regulations in 2018/19.

The HSE and local authorities can issue both improvement and prohibition notices. In the last year 11,040 notices were issued this represents a 4% decrease on the previous year. While the majority of the majority of notices are issued by the HSE the biggest percentage fall has been in the number issued by local authorities, down 12% on the previous year.

There has also been a fall in the number of prosecutions completed by the HSE and, in Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. In total in 2018/19 394 cases were prosecuted and reached a verdict a decrease of 23% from the previous year.

Not surprisingly with such a significant drop in the number of prosecutions the total amount of fines issued dropped to £54.5 million from £71.6 million the previous year. However the amount of the average fine per case has risen slightly to £150,000 from £148,000 the previous year.

The HSE state they are “undertaking further work to better understand factors in this decrease” and note they have “A larger than normal number of inspectors in training”.

The latest enforcement statistics can be downloaded from the HSE’s website at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/enforcement.htm

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