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Council prosecutions
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Tim 188  
#1 Posted : 17 May 2010 16:57:29(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Tim 188
I am currently putting together a short health and safety training presentation to be delivered to members of our local City Council. To make it relevant I would like to incorporate some relevant prosecutions of local authorities, however I am struggling to find any recent examples (I did find prosecution of Gateshead Council on HSE website (www.hse.gov.uk/PRESS/2008/gnnne05208.htm ) Any advice would be greatly appreciated Tim
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Ron Hunter  
#2 Posted : 17 May 2010 17:01:12(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Ron Hunter
http://www.hse.gov.uk/Pr...earch/simple/default.asp A search of the above on total service industries will through up several LA prosecutions. Doesn't give much detail though.
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RayRapp  
#3 Posted : 17 May 2010 17:10:53(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
RayRapp
Tim My might like to try searching for the Barrow-in-Furness case where the Council was prosecuted following a legionaires outbreak. Nice juicy case.
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imwaldra  
#4 Posted : 17 May 2010 17:18:35(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
imwaldra
Aberdeenshire Council was prosecuted a few years ago for failing to implement risk assessments - basically they were just paper exercises filed away. I'm aware that HSE knew of the situation but had been unable to influence anyone to improve, so they waited until there were some serious incidents and then came down very heavily.
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Tim 188  
#5 Posted : 17 May 2010 17:42:27(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Tim 188
Thanks for the help, I took a quick look at the Barrow in furnace case, and will use it as an example. Maybe I'm being cynical but I think it probably explains why there are so few cases - 7 fatalities, 180 people made ill - one Individual was prosecuted and fined 15k, However, the tax payer picks up the bill for legal costs and the fine of 125k plus the cost of the enquiry.
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RayRapp  
#6 Posted : 17 May 2010 18:05:25(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
RayRapp
Indeed, the judge in the Barrow case noted that if it were not a council but a private company they would have been fined in the region of £1m, but received a fine of about £100k. A similar conundrum exists with the Corporate Manslaughter Act, where public bodies and non-profit making organisations are likely to be treated more leniently than private ones.
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HSSnail  
#7 Posted : 18 May 2010 15:29:48(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
HSSnail
Tim Have you tried SHP on line? The link is http://www.shponline.co.uk/ If you type council into the search field you will get numerous examples that you can then explore in detail. Regards Brian
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Tim 188  
#8 Posted : 18 May 2010 15:43:24(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Tim 188
Thanks for that Brian - great resource
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PH2  
#9 Posted : 18 May 2010 15:57:06(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
PH2
Here are two from Northern Ireland (traditionally fines here are substantially lowere than the rest of the UK) https://www.secure.hseni...%20to%20March%202009.pdf http://www.hseni.gov.uk/...agh_district_council.pdf
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jay  
#10 Posted : 18 May 2010 16:34:19(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jay
You could use the HSE prosecutions database and do a search of "cases" where the defendent is a "council". I managed to get 70 results in the up to 5 years database--there will be many more in the Prosecutions History Database! You can do a search of "notices" in another database. The limitation is that it does not have details that an SHP/Safety Managent article may have. Refer to the search result I got at:- http://www.hse.gov.uk/pr...2C+%7C&x=24&y=10
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barnaby  
#11 Posted : 19 May 2010 12:12:22(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Guest
jay wrote:
You could use the HSE prosecutions database and do a search of "cases" where the defendent is a "council". I managed to get 70 results in the up to 5 years database--there will be many more in the Prosecutions History Database! You can do a search of "notices" in another database. The limitation is that it does not have details that an SHP/Safety Managent article may have. Refer to the search result I got at:- http://www.hse.gov.uk/pr...2C+%7C&x=24&y=10
Yes, and if you add 'resulting in fatality' using 'advanced search' you'll find 17 of the 70 were fatals. The history data base has another 150 (didn't check how many were fatals). You could also try searching for prosecutions of individual council employees, of which there are a few. A number would have been investigated by forum users and if you provide an email address you could ask whether anyone would be prepared to share further details (anonymised, of course to protect the inocent - & guilty) which could add a more human dimension for a more interesting presentation.
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martinw  
#12 Posted : 19 May 2010 13:52:36(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
martinw
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Tim 188  
#13 Posted : 19 May 2010 15:10:56(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Tim 188
Many thanks to all who have taken the time & trouble to provide information, not only have I got the info I need but have discovered some valuable sources for future reference. Cheers Tim
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