Page 27 - PWM2025_OCTOBER EBOOK

BETTER BUSINESS

nesses finding the current economic “Since the advent of the sentencing
background difficult. He says that guidelines, introduced in 2016,
“with rising employment costs, which based the level of penalty on
there’s pressure on delivering the culpability, harm and turnover
perfect product to the client within (rather than profit) with set ranges of
tight timeframes along with the fine levels, the courts have had a less
requirement to be both sustainable subjective approach to sentencing
and profitable”.
He continues: “This can place a (where one never knew what the
strain on what can be perceived as level of fine was going to be) to the
the ‘intangibles’ within the business, objective approach adopted in the
with less attention being paid to guidelines”. In other words, the final
training, oversight, supervision and level of fine will be within a range
so on, which in turn can lead to decided through a stepped approach
errors in the way tasks are with aggravating and mitigating fac-
approached and completed.” tors being considered.
Against this background he says it Robson explains more about the
is easy to see why incidents occur. magnitude of the fines: “Under the
Even so, he believes that incidents guidelines... if convicted of a health
happen not because businesses do and safety offence, large organisa-
not have the correct systems and pol- tions that turn over more than £50m
icies in place, but “that normal every- and fall into the ‘very high’ culpabil-
day running of the business get in the ity category could be fined up to
way their adherence”. £10m.” And this was the case with
As he says, “nobody wants a work- the fine handed to Industrial
place incident to occur, but it is Chemicals.
impossible to eliminate all risks, so, Given this, Robson offers guidance
as is recognised in the 1974 Act, the to those in the midst of an incident
object is to reduce the risk of that and investigation: It’s critical to con-
incident happening to as low as is duct a thorough investigation “which
reasonably practicable”. if conducted effectively will highlight
Interacting with the HSE improvements to prevent recur-
for easy access as health conditions often occur over time and it’s useful to So, what happens when the HSE rence”.
clearly evidence checks undertaken whilst employed with the company”. visits as the result of an accident? Collins also has useful advice to
But while the physical is obvious, Collins says to remember that health Here Collins says that the HSE share. He says that the person man-
issues don’t have to be physical to come under the aegis of the HSE. He officers he has dealt with – he used to aging the situation for the company
refers to statistics for 2023/24 that show that 1.7m workers in Great Britain prosecute on behalf of the HSE, so should oversee the inspection pro-
experienced work-related ill health, including 776,000 cases of stress, knows a large number – have “always cess, seek legal advice immediately –
depression, or anxiety – work-related mental ill-health amounted for been highly professional and recog- even if it just a telephone
around half of the 33.7m working days lost in this sphere. This is why he says nise that when they go onto a site fol- conversation, cooperate, and aim to
that “the HSE as part of its 2024/25 business plan is focusing upon mental lowing an incident, it is likely that is be the main point of contact with
health and stress”. the first time that business has been police and HSE.
involved in any kind of formal inves- Further, he recommends manag-
The main causes of incidents tigation”. ing the evidence, the interview pro-
It’s fair to say that ‘life happens’ and by extension, so do accidents. But that Given this, he says that “the feed- cess, and documents by which he
doesn’t abrogate the need for organisations – employers – to do all they can back I have received from clients is means preserving existing docu-
to minimise risks. And this is something that Robson recognises. As she that, while they do not like the fact ments, providing copies as requested
says, “there will be accidents in any sector, for sure, no matter how much that they are in that position, the and keeping records and schedules,
attention is focused on health and safety. The important factor is to build a inspectors are fair and clear in their and supervising the management,
preventative robust safety management system to ensure action has been investigation”. communications, and links to insur-
taken to control all elements of risk where possible.” But it’s clear – from the headlines ers and lawyers. In her opinion, mak-
From her position, it doesn’t help that “the legislation in the industry is at the top of this story, if nothing else ing sure that a filing system is robust
lengthy, often confusing, especially if a company hasn’t a competent health – that penalties are rising. But this is enough so that records can easily be
and safety person within the business to translate this into simple tasks”. not a recent phenomenon. found is key to a smooth-running
But from Collins’ perspective, there’s a concern: manufacturing busi- Collins explains what has changed: HSE visit.

www.printweekmena.com October 2025 PrintWeek MENA 25