Tougher guidelines bring Tata Steel a £1.4m fine
Earlier this month, steel producer Tata Steel was fined £1.4 million after pleading guilty to breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work etc Act following the death of a maintenance electrician.
The sentence came just a day after the second anniversary of the stronger Sentencing Council guidelines for health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences that came into force on 1 February 2016,
Thomas Standerline died in April 2010. He was examining a crane as part of his inspection duties when an overhead crane travelled over the cage he was in, trapping and then crushing him.
An HSE investigation found Tata had failed to enforce its own safety procedures, despite two previous incidents. Speaking after the hearing at Hull Crown Court, HSE principal inspector Kirsty Storer said the company had “failed both to take these as a warning sign and to act on safety recommendations”.
HSE figures in its Enforcement in Great Britain 2017 report show the effect of the stronger sentencing guidelines. There were 38 fines of £500,000 or more handed out in the year to 31 March 2017. In 2014-15, the last full year before the guidelines were introduced, the largest single fine was £750,000 and just five cases were at or above £500,000.
Since April 2017, the courts have handed down more than 20 fines of £1 million or more to companies found guilty of breaching health and safety law.