IOSH slams health and safety fines disparity

The biggest fine ever in the UK for a health and safety offence was the £15 million fine handed out to Transco in 2005 over the Larkhall explosion which killed a family of four in 1999. In England and Wales, the biggest fine was the £7.5 million fine given to Balfour Beatty over the Hatfield rail crash, which also claimed four lives.

In the UK, the average fine for health and safety offences in 2003-04 in the crown court, where there are unlimited fines available, stands at £33,036, while in magistrate’s courts, where the maximum fine is £20,000, the average is £4,036. The average fine for cases involving death in 2003-04 was £43,113.

Lisa Fowlie, president of IOSH, commented: "We hope that with the new Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act coming into force, that this disparity between the most serious health and safety offences and financial offences like this one committed by BA will shrink.

"But we need the courts to send the right message – that killing people is at least as serious as financial irregularities – if we’re to improve the UK's health and safety record. 241 workers died in 2006/07, but 241 fines of £43,000 is only just over £10 million. Such a great disparity cannot be justified. The punishment needs to fit the crime."