- The largest fine in 2016 was two-and-a-half times the size of the largest fine in 2015 and almost ten times larger than the largest fine in 2014.
- Nineteen companies received fines of a million pounds or more in 2016 (the largest being £5 million), compared to only three in 2015 and none in 2014.
- Total income from the highest 20 fines in 2016 (£38.58million) was higher than the total fine income for the 660 prosecutions successfully brought by the HSE in its reporting year of 2015/2016 (£38.3million).
- In 2016, the 20th largest fine was £900,000. This amount was equalled or exceeded by only three cases in 2015 and was £300,000 more than the largest fine in 2014.
- Large fines are no longer limited to cases involving a fatality, courts will look at whether there’s “a high likelihood of serious injury or death being caused and a large number of workers were exposed to that risk”.
- It was reported that, in 2015/16, 46 company directors and senior managers were prosecuted under health and safety law, compared to an annual average of 24 in the five previous years.
