BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY

摘要

Guidelines have been introduced by the Sentencing Council, effective from 1 February 2016, to act as a definitive guide for both magistrates and Crown Courts when dealing with a number of cases concerning health and safety offences, including corporate manslaughter for companies and individuals. Before these guidelines were published, there was little specific guidance as to how courts should deal with these issues. This lack of clarity no doubt resulted in courts dealing with some offenders in different ways to others, such as imposing significantly varying fines. The Sentencing Council has brought a clear structure to future sentencing and has given effect to the changes in the law made by the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 which increased the maximum penalties for a number of relevant health and safety offences. For example, the maximum sentence that can be imposed by a magistrates court increased from £20,000 to an unlimited fine for offences such as contravening any requirement of an improvement or prohibition notice (Section 33 Health and Safety At Work Act). This power relates to offences committed after March 2015.