Sentencing Guidelines Update

With fines under the Sentencing Guidelines 2016 increasingly on the rise, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released the latest set of statistics, uncovering that the construction sector paid almost £19 million in fines last year, compared with £17 million in 2016-17.

Details of the enforcement statistics across Great Britain can be found here.

The sector faced 206 prosecutions, of which 94% resulted in a conviction for at least one offence with an average fine per conviction of over £98,000.

Latest figures also show 38 fatal injuries to construction workers, which is broadly in line with the five-year average.  Almost half of deaths over this five-year period have been due to falls from height while 12% were due to workers being trapped by a collapse or struck by a falling object.

The fatal injury rate in construction of 1.64 per 100,000 workers remains around four times the rate across all industries but is still significantly below other industries such as agriculture and sewerage.

If you or your business is currently facing an investigation or potential prosecution by the HSE and would like our assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch.