Yes. A company with no shareholders is fined. The dept is paid by the government. The government is paid by us. So we pay the fine. This is a triumph for Health and Safety: How ? Essentially, the victim pays for the crime.

Bet the exacutive directors / senior managers who made the decisions to cut back on safety prior to the incident have retained their big bonuses for those periods !!!!

Bob Not disputing anything you have written, but I think the point I was trying to make and possibly the other posters goes well beyond the facts of the case and the investigation. For example, why did it take so long to prosecute and come to court? Since the rail crash Jarvis have rather conveniently gone into administration and Railtrack have been taken over by NWR. The real culprits have not been brought to justice. Furthermore, the whole issue of the law and health and safety is becoming a joke. Individuals are rarely held accountable for their actions in the boardroom and fines for publicly funded organisations are not a commensurate sanction. Judge Wright in the sentencing of British Rail for the Clapham Junction train crash in 1988 said: "A swingeing fine of the magnitude that some, even now, might consider appropriate in the circumstances of this case, could only be met by the Board either by increasing the burden on the fare-paying passengers - which is hardly logical having regards to the fact that it is for the benefit of the fare-paying passengers that the legislation exists - or by reducing the funds available for improvements in the railway system in general. That, again, could hardly be regarded as a desirable state of affairs." It appears to me that we have learnt very little in the last twenty years or so.

As a whole, the INDUSTRY takes Health and Safety seriously. At the bottom of the stack, or higher, individuals do not.

Bob S Can you clarify when you say the "real cause of the accident was the privatisation regime that was put in place and the rush to make a quick buck from what it did." Is this the consensus of the team that investigated, is it written in the official report and/or is it your personal opinion. I don't dispute what you say and I would respect your opinion, but we all have to be clear when we talk about these things.

Devilman, the cost of bringing the case to court has probably outweighed the cost of the fine and even if it has not, add the investigation and the £3m looks like small change, either way, the fine to a large organisation like NWR is still peanuts. Andy, there is a perception that the privatisation of the rail industry in the 1990s led to a number of poor practices and a lack of investment. Certainly anecdotal evidence suggests that is the case and of course the demise of the former Railtrack was due in part to a series of high profile train crashes. Most of these were avoidable with proper safety systems and better regulation...sound familiar? The Potters Bar train crash occurred in 2002 and here we are discussing the outcome of the case. I think the authorities have much to answer for the unnecessary delay in bringing this case to court, not sure it was worthwhile anyway - a sad day for justice.