Lawford Kidd's Blog

A new approach to health and safety prosecutions has meant that employers who commit serious breaches of health and safety are now receiving much tougher penalties, according to a recent Government report.

Impact of Health and Safety Offences Act

The report covers the five years following the introduction of the Health and Safety Offences Act in 2009, which increased the maximum penalties the courts could impose for certain health and safety offences as a deterrent for would-be offenders.

In particular, the Act:

Recent figures released by the Ministry of Justice have revealed that injury compensation worth over £10 million has been paid to prison inmates over the past five years, reports the Independent.

A customer who slipped on a grape while shopping in an Asda store in Peterborough has been awarded £10,500 in damages, reports the Telegraph. Asda was also ordered by the court to pay £18,000 in legal costs.