Fines for breaches of WP Regs/Management Regs

[Big A]

A fire occurred at a res care premises in North London in 2005 at which several elderly residents were evacuated due to smoke travel through the building. Although in court for 18 offences the judge decided that only two were relevant. Namely failing to have a suitable risk assessement and failing to have an emergency plan. He ruled that all the other deficiencies would have been dealt with if these two issues had been addressed. He fined the owners £100,000 for each offence and awarded £30,000 against them in costs (£230,000 in total). He also said that he had taken their 'guilty' plea into account.
Whoever said the new regime had no teeth?

[kurnal]

Crikey!
And lets not forget you cannot insure against fines!
I wonder if they will appeal against the sentence- whilst I applaud it, it does appear harsh compared to many other recent H&S cases where a loss of life has occurred.

[Chris Houston]

Glad to hear it.  This is what we need.

[messy]

There were somewhat special circumstances in this case, including the 'locking in' of a resident who, as a result of the fire, needed to be evacuated.

I am sure that this may have helped crank up the fine

[Pip]

Recent case under Workplace regs-RP failed to comply with Enforcement notice- 3 counts max fine £5k each,plus 9 counts of additional offences at time of re inspection-£18K; going rate for a door wedge £2k a time.Aggravated by R.P. failing to co operate in any form plus did not attend court 3 times.Tried in abscence.

[wee brian]

HSE, keep a list of all prosecutuins on their website. Perhaps CFOA should do the same thing.

[val]

Wee B,

You will be pleased to know that CFOA are actively seeking to help FRA's comply with their legal requirement to make available for inspection all notices, prosecutions, etc served under the FSO.
Think it will be an IT based system that FRA's can automatically feed into and make available brief details of offence or work required. (Probably have to pay but hey!)
May make a few large companies take notice when their name appears again and again all over the country.

[wee brian]

good

[CivvyFSO]

Due to the nice shiny new 'relevant persons' issue, almost all notices served here are 'relevant' notices and as such are available for the public to view. Something needs doing to make them more widely available, such as a simple link from the main website, but they are available to view if desired.

With regards prosecutions, some PR work with regards local free newspapers may help, would at the very least help other RP's in the area realise that we are have teeth when required. Would also raise general awareness of fire safety just by getting people to think about the standards in their buildings/businesses and whether one visit from an IO could end up with them being in the paper too. If that makes people tow the line more, then we are happy, if it gets you consultants more work then you are happy. Less fires. EVERYONE is happy! (Nearly)

[Nearlybaldandgrey]

Any enforcement notice served should be held on a register under the Environment act and after the 21 day appeal time, is available for public viewing.

I agree there should be a system similar to the HSE which records all enforcement activity.

[val]

Big A

Can you point me in the right direction to get more details of this case and the way it was handled?

[Big A]

Val

 This is the web address but I'm afraid I can't make it into a link.:

http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/detail.asp?id=844

or go to LFB website, look for 2007 press releases and scroll down to 26/2/07

[val]

Thanks Big A,

Incredible the range of fines that different judges can impose. The issue of locked doors is very interesting as many care homes 'allow' residents to lock their doors.

[Big A]

Thanks Big A,

Incredible the range of fines that different judges can impose. The issue of locked doors is very interesting as many care homes 'allow' residents to lock their doors.

Note that the fines were imposed for breaches of the Management Regs. This is obviously only a very brief summary of what occurred. Smoke percolated through most of the building. Many of the rooms were full of smoke even though the corridors outside weren't.

[jasper]

Thanks Big A,

Incredible the range of fines that different judges can impose. The issue of locked doors is very interesting as many care homes 'allow' residents to lock their doors.

Note that the fines were imposed for breaches of the Management Regs. This is obviously only a very brief summary of what occurred. Smoke percolated through most of the building. Many of the rooms were full of smoke even though the corridors outside weren't.

your working on bank holiday monday?