Rank: Super forum user 
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Press release this week
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...-corporate-manslaughter/
These kind of accidents are close to my heart as I often advise on rooflight refurbishments and installations. I keep an eye on HSE press releases and use any roof-related reports as reminders and in toolbox talks etc for contractors.
Such accidents are reported about monthly in the HSE press releases, usually serious injury or fatality, so I welcome the result in this latest case as corporate manslaughter.
I am curious to read a senior police officer quoted as saying “This has been a long and complex investigation, and we have worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive to establish what happened".
Curious only in that why it would be "a long and complex investigation". I just wonder how long it takes to prove an employer did not have a safe system of work, or "failed to ensure the safety of employees" the breach in this case. Why would the investigation in this case take so long?
I expect we will see more manslaughter convictions from similar cases in the near future.
John
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Rank: Forum user
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JohnW wrote:Press release this week
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...-corporate-manslaughter/
These kind of accidents are close to my heart as I often advise on rooflight refurbishments and installations. I keep an eye on HSE press releases and use any roof-related reports as reminders and in toolbox talks etc for contractors.
Such accidents are reported about monthly in the HSE press releases, usually serious injury or fatality, so I welcome the result in this latest case as corporate manslaughter.
I am curious to read a senior police officer quoted as saying “This has been a long and complex investigation, and we have worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive to establish what happened".
Curious only in that why it would be "a long and complex investigation". I just wonder how long it takes to prove an employer did not have a safe system of work, or "failed to ensure the safety of employees" the breach in this case. Why would the investigation in this case take so long?
I expect we will see more manslaughter convictions from similar cases in the near future.
John
"Peter Mawson Ltd, a building and joining firm, pleaded guilty in December to ‘corporate manslaughter’ and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to ensure the safety of employees. The company was fined £200,000 for the corporate manslaughter offence, and £20,000 for the Health and Safety breach.
Peter Mawson, owner of the company, also pleaded guilty to a breach of the same act and was sentenced today to: eight months in prison, suspended for two years; 200 hours unpaid work; a publicity order to advertise what happened on the company website for a set period of time, and to take out a half page spread in the local newspaper; and pay costs of £31,504.77."
......it also took 3 years for legal proceedings to come to a head, and the business is now potentially ruined
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Well there is nothing mentioned on his website yet.
What's the betting the firm will go into liquidation before the fines are paid and get sold for £1 to Mrs Mawson.
HSE are still going after "low hanging fruit"; will be interested to know when they intend to try this with "National Names".
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Rank: Forum user
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walker wrote:Well there is nothing mentioned on his website yet.
What's the betting the firm will go into liquidation before the fines are paid and get sold for £1 to Mrs Mawson.
HSE are still going after "low hanging fruit"; will be interested to know when they intend to try this with "National Names".
I know, I looked yesterday on the website......loads of accreditations but no details of the case!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Just revisited the website of the convicted party, still no acknowledgement of the prosecution, maybe he's appealing?
My main client is involved in roofing and rooflight installation, so I am always monitoring the HSE press release page, and it seems that in the roofing industry an employee falling through a rooflight or fragile roof is almost a weekly occurrence in UK, resulting in serious injury or death.
Many cases are very similar in that fall protection under the roof or rooflight is absent, nothing preventing the person falling several metres to the floor, yet the prosecution sentencing for a FATALITY varies hugely, from the above case, guilty of corporate manslaughter, to just a WAH breach and a small fine of £10,000 in a case just this week:
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...ned-after-workers-death/
OK maybe I'm not reading all the case details, but I'm curious why there is such a variation in prosecution sentencing.
Other recent examples this year:
fatality, large fine:
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...r-man-died-in-roof-fall/
serious injury cases:
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...rt-for-worker-roof-fall/
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...ourt-after-workers-fall/
http://press.hse.gov.uk/...-paralysed-in-roof-fall/
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Rank: Forum user
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It's funny because I visited the website this morning and thought that the company may have hid the details of the case somewhere hard to find!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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If free data about the on the www are at all accurate, the level of fine alone will put this Company out of business and leave a substantial amount of the fines unpaid.
The publicity orders would only exacerbate things, driving the net value of the business towards zero.
Given that scenario, a prison sentence seems inevitable.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Agree with the comment about a 'long and complex investigation.' A small company it should not take too long to establish whether they had a procedure for W@H, was it properly planned, equipment readily available and training of employee - simples!
Penalties for convictions do vary considerably as noted by the recent Sentencing Guidelines Council consultative document. This is in part due to the interpretation by the judge of current guidance and also the requirement to assess the convicted person's means to pay a pecuniary sanction.
Although the fine may be substantial for CM for a small company, the individual prosecution for a breach of HSWA is pathetic - 8 months, suspended for two years! Sending someone to W@H without proper controls on a fragile roof is tantamount to murdering them in my opinion.
If you consider the recent case of a woman in the US illegally carrying out cosmetic surgery causing the death of a British dancer, she has been prosecuted for murder (not manslaughter) with a penalty of up to 40 years imprisonment.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Company owners of all sizes are see to be part of the establishment and "they" have always been immune from the full force of the law.
If the Sentencing Guidelines Council consultative document actually ever happens we could finally have some justice.
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Rank: Forum user
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Look at the homepage: the last sentence sums it up really! Whatever it takes!! Wonder if that was used in the prosecution.
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Rank: Super forum user
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And the client got off again so when is the HSE going to hit the clients!?
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