New levels of fines proposed for serious health and safety offences
Proposed New Levels of Fines
Proposals have been put forward following a review by the Sentencing Council to increase the level of fines able to be imposed upon organisations found to have committed corporate manslaughter. It is proposed to revise levels of future fines up to £20m in England and Wales; with fatalities from health and safety offences proposed to carry a £10m penalty.
Why have the existing arrangements changed?
The review of the existing arrangements has arisen from concerns that the current guidelines are not sufficiently comprehensive and are found to be vague in some areas with some fines against offences carrying no upper limits for fines or starting points based on the size of the company involved, which the Sentencing Council suggests often results in penalties not being large enough in relation to an organisations size.
The review found that sentencing levels for health and safety offences were already proportionate and therefore these look set to remain the same going forward.
If you’d like to know more about these newly proposed H&S offence(s) fines, please follow the below link:
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