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Immediate
Release, 24 January 2007
Failure
to prosecute Scottish Ambulance Service contrary to
enforcement policy expectation
The decision by the Crown Office not to prosecute
the Scottish Ambulance Service after a damning report
prepared by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
is contrary to HSE's prosecution policy, says the
Centre for Corporate Accountability.
The
CCA has been assisting a former SAS paramedic who
suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought
about by his experiences and lack of support while
employed by SAS.
The HSE policy states that prosecution would be expected
when any one of the following conditions apply:
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the
gravity of an alleged offence, taken together
with the seriousness of any actual or potential
harm, or the general record and approach of the
offender warrants it; |
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there
has been reckless disregard of health and safety
requirements; |
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there
have been repeated breaches which give rise to
significant risk, or persistent and significant
poor compliance; |
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a
duty holder’s standard of managing health
and safety is found to be far below what is required
by health and safety law and to be giving rise
to significant risk; |
The
CCA believes that HSE’s own highly critical
report prepared in 2004 showed that at least one if
not more of these circumstances existed. Click
here to see details of report.
Although
the Crown Office is not under an obligation to follow
this prosecution policy, there is an expectation that
it should do so.
In
2004 the Health and Safety Executive completed a damning
report on poor health and safety practices at the
Scottish Ambulance Service, which came to public attention
in September 2005 after disclosure by the CCA.
The CCA subsequently pressed the HSE to recommend
to the Crown Office that the SAS be prosecuted for
breaches of health and safety law, and when they refused
to do so, the CCA went directly to the Crown Office
to ask the Lord Advocate to consider prosecution for
persistent and serious breaches.
Late
last year the CCA was informed that the Crown Office
would not be prosecuting SAS for any of the identified
breaches. It stated that the SAS was making progress
in complying with changes required by the HSE since
the report was written and that the “proper
course at this stage is for SAS resources and time
to be spend on continuing in their efforts to improve
their health and safety practices.”
CCA is surprised and disappointed by this decision.
Executive Director David Bergman said:
“It
is vital that the public can have confidence in
the quality of health and safety protection both
for patients and workers offered by the Scottish
Ambulance Service. The HSE have identified serious
failings by the SAS and prosecution in such circumstances
is appropriate. The decision by SAS to make improvements
in health and safety following the report are very
welcome, but decision by public bodies to comply
with the law that they should have been complying
with in the first place should not displace the
need for criminal accountability when serious failures
have been identified”.
CCA's
client stated:
“
I am extremely disappointed with this decision not
to prosecute. While I worked at SAS, I experienced
a very poor culture of health and safety, with employees
being put at risk on a daily basis. I am concerned
that because of the lack of enforcement in this
case, my ex-colleagues are still be in danger today.
Why has the Scottish Executive not looked into this
matter? Members must have been aware of the serious
problems with the Scottish Executive, and if they
weren’t they should have been”.
The
Centre for Corporate Accountability is a human rights
charity advising those bereaved from work-related
deaths, and working on issues of safety, law enforcement
and corporate accountability.
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