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HSE's Policy on Disclosure of Information to the public
This page looks at the Health and Safety Commission/Executive's policy towards the disclosure of documents and information.

It is aimed at setting out clearly:
what information the HSE and HSC will and will not provide to members of the public;
the best way of obtaining the information that the HSE does make public;
the reasons why the HSE will not provide certain information
the adequacy of these reasons;

It first sets out what is HSE's general policy.

It then allows you to check whether the HSE will or will not make available particular categories of information and how best to obtain it.

It then sets out how you can appeal against a decision by the HSE not to provide you information.

Contact the Centre if – having read the material below - you need further guidance on obtaining information from the HSE, or on how to appeal a decision.

The Centre for Corporate Accountability and the Public Law Project have recently made a number of ‘challenges’ in relation to HSE’s decisions to deny particular information to a bereaved family, in one case, and to the CCA, in another. To read about this, Click Here.

Index

Key Documents and abbreviations
Who is the "public"
Understanding HSE's Policy
- What does the law say cannot be disclosed
- What are the exemptions in the Open Government Code, Part 2
- What is 'significant harm"
• 

See what information you can and can not get from the HSE

- HSE's internal Guidance to inspectors
- Annonymised statistical information on levels of injury, investigation, prosecution etc
- Conviction/Notices concerning named companies or duty holders
- Details of deaths and injuries reported by particular named companies or duty holders;
- Reports of HSE inspections and investigations
- Witness Statements
- Reasons why HSE decide not to prosecute companies or directors.
Challenging decisions of the HSE not to release information
How to get the information




Key Documents and abbreviations
There are a number of key documents. These are summarised in the main text below to help you understand HSE’s policy, but you can download them if you would like to see these documents in full.

The most important document is HSE’s General Administrative Procedure (GAP) 1 - "Open government – Disclosure of information to the Public" - which contains instructions and procedures for HSE staff on how they should deal with requests for information.

In the text below, it is referred to as "GAP 1"

To download, Click Here (word doc)
"Code of Practice on Access to Government Information": This sets out the Government’s policy on what information government departments should release. It is published by the Lord Chancellor’s Department;

In the text below, it is referred to as ‘Open Government Code

To download, Part 1, Click Here (word) (which deals with information that should be disclosed)
To download, Part 2, Click Here (word) (which deals with exemptions)
Health and Safety Commission’s Policy Statement on Open Government
This sets out the Commission’s statement on openness

In the text below it is referred to as 'HSC’s Openness Statement'

To download, Click Here (PDF)
Health and Safety Executive Board Statement on Openness; This sets out the Executive’s policy on openness

In the text below it is referred to as ‘HSE Openness Statement

To see this, Click Here

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Who does the HSE view as "members of the public"
According to HSE Guidance, "The "public" essentially means anyone who does not have official access to government information, and includes employers, employees, Members of Parliament (MPs), the European Parliament (MEPs), the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and the National Assembly for Wales (AMs) as well as lobbying organisations, commercial organisations and persons overseas.

Click here for more information on how the HSE deals with MPs.


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What is HSE's Policy
The HSE’s policy is that on request the HSE will release any information that it holds, unless:

it is legally prohibited from doing so: or
both
(a) the Government's Open Government code states that the information should not be disclosed and
(b) disclosure would cause significant harm

This policy is set out in HSE’s Openness Statement and Paras 1.5-1.7 in GAP 1


Therefore in relation to every request the HSE should be asking the following questions:

is it lawful to release the information? If the answer is 'no', the information can not be released, and that is the end of the story

if there is nothing in law prohibiting release, the HSE must ask whether or not it falls into one of the 15 categories of information contained in Part 2 of the Open Government Code that are exempt from release.

If the information does not fit into one of these categories, then it should be released even if release would cause significant harm.

if the information does fall into one of the exemption categories, the HSE should ask whether disclosure will cause "significant harm".

If disclosure would not cause significant harm, the information should be disclosed
If in the the HSE’s view, disclosure would cause significant harm, the HSE can still disclose it if would be in the 'public interest' to do so.

In other words, if the HSE is not legally prohibited from disclosing the information, it must disclose it unless:
the information is one of the exempted categories in the Open Government Code, and

disclosure would cause significant harm; and

disclosure would not be in the public interest.

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What does the law say cannot be disclosed
Section 28 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (the 1974 Act) prohibits the release of two categories of information which are in the HSE’s possession


a category of information called ‘Relevant Information" (see S28(1), 1974 Act). This is principally information which duty holders have a legal obligation to provide to the HSE. For example:

- information about deaths, injuries etc required by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995.
- safety reports required by the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 COMAH.
- offshore safety cases required by the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992.
['Relevent information' also includes information obtained through the powers of section 27(1)]

information obtained by inspectors in the course of their activities (see S28(7), 1974 Act). This includes any information – including witness statements - that inspectors obtain in the course of preventative inspections or investigations into reported incidents.

However Section 28 sets out a number of exemptions.

Both categories of information can be provided in the following situations:

the person who gave the information has consented to its disclosure.

It should be noted that the guidance to inspectors states that the suppliers of information "should not be given the opportunity to make their consent conditional on the identity of the enquirer or the enquirer’s purposes." To see the full extract from GAP, Click Here


 

if disclosure would serve "the purpose of any function" of the HSC/E.

What are the ‘functions" of the HSC/E?

The key purposes of the HSC/E is set out in section 1(1) of the 1974 Act. These are:
- securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work;
- protecting persons other than persons at work against risks to health or safety arising out or in connection with the activities of persons at work;

Guidance to the HSE (Appendix B, Para 1.B12, in GAP 1) states that information can be released if it:

"serves these broad purposes. For instance, disclosure would be permitted where:

- its object is to prevent harm to the public
- it would serve a positive health and safety purpose, or;
- there is concern amongst the public and disclosure can allay that concern"

The guidance also makes the following points:

- The purpose of disclosure determines whether it will be lawful, rather than the individual or body to whom the disclosure is made.
- Where HSE judges that the public, or sectors of the public, are in need of information for the purposes described above it is entitled to disclose it.
- The range of circumstances in which disclosure of information would serve a positive health and safety purpose is broad, and the HSE should consider each case on its merits.

It should be noted that whether something is or is not a 'function" of the HSE is a very contentious area and one which, in the CCA's view, the HSE tends to interpret in a conservative manner.

For example, would providing information to bereaved families serve 'function" of the HSC/E?

The HSE does not think so. It states in its Guidance

"However, the health and safety purpose must be broader than, for instance, meeting the natural concerns of relatives of victims who have died in accidents.....

The provisions of Section 28, as presently drafted, do not provide for such understandable concerns, in themselves, to constitute a proper reason to make a disclosure to victims and relatives of victims of accidents."

However it does state that:

"Wherever possible we should look to provide information in these circumstances in a redacted form - i.e., the information should be made available to the relatives of victims in a way which does not disclose commercially sensitive or other confidential material."

For more information on obtaining witness statements for the bereaved, prior to an inquest, Click Here

If the information is "for the purposes of any legal proceedings".

If the legal proceedings concern personal injury compensation claims, the Civil Procedure Rules state that "legal proceedings" come into existence once the claim form has been issued. If you want to read specifically about obtaining information relating to a civil claim, click here.

It should be noted that the HSE argues that Coroners’ Inquests are not legal proceedings.
for the purposes of a special "inquiry" set up by the HSC by virtue of section 14(2) of the Act
for the purposes of a report published by the HSC/E concerning an incident subject to legal proceedings or subject to a special inquiry (by virtue of section 14(2)).

In addition, "relevant information" can be disclosed

- if the information is in a form "calculated to prevent it from being identified as relating to a particular person or case"

This allows the HSE to release statistical information.

This exemption will not apply if you are seeking information about a particular company or duty holder, but it will apply if you are seeking non-company specific information (i.e. information about RIDDOR incidents in a particular local authority or a particular industry.)

So in summary

  Is the information sought, ‘relevant information’ or information obtained by the HSE inspectors in the course of their activities?
  If it is, then it can only ‘legally’ be released if it comes in one of the exemptions set out above.
  If not, then it can be ‘lawfully’ released
  If the information can be lawfully released, the HSE will only do so after consideration of the ‘Open Government Code’ and the ‘Significant Harm’ test (see below)


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What are the exemptions in the Open Government Code, Part 2

There are 15 categories. They can be summarised in the following manner:

Exemption 1 information which would harm national security, defence or international relations
Exemption 2 information that would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion
Exemption 4 information which would prejudice law enforcement and legal proceedings or would harm public order or public security
Exemption 7 information which could harm the management of HSC/E or the conduct of its operations
Exemption 8 personnel records, public appointments, honours
Exemption 9 vexatious requests, requests which are manifestly unreasonable or formulated in too general a manner or would require an unreasonable diversion of resources
Exemption 10 information about to be published
Exemption 11 incomplete analysis, research or statistics or information held only for the purpose of research and statistics where the individual record will not be identified
Exemption 12 information that would cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (this exemption is now largely superseded by protections in the Data Protection Act, see GAP 37)
Exemption 13 commercially confidential information
Exemption 14 Information of a confidential nature

To downwnload them in full, Click Here (word)

It should be notedthat where one of these exemptions apply, there is an overiding ‘public interest’ test.

The code states that:

"In those categories which refer to harm or prejudice, the presumption remains that information should be disclosed unless the harm likely to arise from disclosure would outweigh the public interest in making the information available.

References to harm or prejudice include both actual harm or prejudice and risk or reasonable expectation of harm or prejudice. In such cases it should be considered whether any harm or prejudice arising from disclosure is outweighed by the public interest in making information available."

This would indicate that even when in the HSE’s view ‘significant harm’ might result, it may still be disclosable - if disclsoure is judged to be in the public interest.

  In summary:
    If the information does not come within the categories above, then the HSE should release them (even if in their view it would cause significant harm).
 
    If the information does come within the categories above, the HSE can only deny information, if disclosure would cause ‘significant harm’ and disclosure would not be in the 'public interest'

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Significant Harm
It is for the HSE to decide whether disclosure would result in significant harm:

Para 1.40 of GAP 1states:

The degree of harm caused by a disclosure will need to be assessed in the context of the exemption(s) concerned - i.e., by referring to the guidance on interpretation of the specific exemption(s). The likelihood that some harm or prejudice would occur should not, in itself, be decisive. For instance, a disclosure which would prejudice our ability to prosecute in a particular case will not automatically amount to significant harm: operating Directorates/Divisions will need carefully to assess whether the harm likely to be caused (e.g., HSE unable to prosecute and thus, by example, deter others from committing similar offences) is outweighed by other factors (such as reducing the risk of similar health and safety failures by targeting specific information at duty-holders or raising awareness through a publicity campaign). Similarly, there may in certain circumstances be a public interest justification for disclosing information originally provided by third parties in confidence - for instance, to counter an immediate and significant threat to health and safety or to the environment. This is unlikely to be the case where disclosure would seriously affect the future supply of information that we need in order to carry out our functions effectively, or where it would render HSE liable in damages for breach of confidence. Legal and/or policy advice should be sought in cases of difficulty, via Directorate/Divisional OG contacts.


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See what information you can and can not get from the HSE

- HSE's internal Guidance to inspectors
- Annonymised statistical information on levels of injury, investigation, prosecution etc
- Conviction/Notices concerning named companies or duty holders
- Details of deaths and injuries reported by particular named companies or duty holders;
- Reports of HSE inspections and investigations
- Witness Statements
- Reasons why HSE decide not to prosecute companies or directors.



HSE’s internal guidance to inspectors
This comprises the following:

Operational Circulars;
Sector Information Minutes

HSE Practice: HSE’s practice is to make all internal guidance available, though certain sections of the guidance may not be released

Reasons: The reasons why the HSE releases this information is that:

It is lawful for this information to be provided - it is not caught by section 28 of the HASAW Act 1974, since this information is produced by the HSE itself (rather than being obtained or given to the HSE). There is therefore no legal restriction on why the HSE can not provide the information
In addition, section 3(2) of Part 1 of the Open government Code requires government bodies to make available "rules, procedures, internal guidance to officials, and similar administrative manuals as will assist better understanding of departmental action in dealing with the public"

The HSE can only decide not to make available particular guidance or particular parts of the guidance, if:

it falls into one of the exemptions contained in part 2 of the Open Government Code (click here to see what these are) and
release would "cause significant harm" (the test contained in HSE’s Openness Statement.)

The two exemptions that are used most frequently by the HSE to argue that particular sections of the operational circulars etc should not be disclosed are that their disclosure:

"would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion" [exemption 2]
"could prejudice the enforcement or proper administration of the law, including the prevention, investigation or detection of crime, or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders" [exemption 4]

However, even if it is the HSE’s view that particular information falls within one of these exemptions, HSE’s Openness Statement and GAP 1 makes it clear that the HSE also have to be of the view that ‘significant harm’ would be caused before it can refuse to release information.

CCA Comment
: In the CCA’s experience, the HSE does not use the ‘significant harm’ test when refusing to release parts of internal guidance.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 






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Annonymised statistical information etc
Statistics on levels of reported incidents (deaths, injuries etc) in different industries and different parts of the country, levels of investigation, levels of enforcement notices and prosecution and details of sentencing.

The HSE has a sophisticated database – known as 'FOCUS' – that contains a great deal of anonymised information in relation to each reported incident, whether it was investigated, and details of any prosecution. It also contains details of all ‘contacts’ made by the HSE to any duty holder. If you want to find out about the database, ask the HSE to send you a copy of the ‘FOCUS Handbook’ which gives details of all the ‘fields’ of data held in the database.

HSE Practice: HSE makes this available though depending on the accessibility of the information, there will be a charge of £25 an hour.

Reason: It is lawful to provide this information: although information collected by the HSE under RIDDOR 95 is "relevant information" which should not be disclosed, there is an exception for information which is in a form "calculated to prevent it from being identified as relating to a particular person or case", which is what is the case here.

Statistics of the kind do not fall into the exceptions of Part 2 of the Open Government Code, and so can be released


 

 

 

 



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Conviction/Notices concerning named companies or duty holders
Details of (a) health and safety offences committed by companies, individuals and other duty holders (where the HSE is the prosecutor) and (b) improvement and prohibition notices imposed on companies etc by the HSE

HSE Practice: This information is now available on HSE’s prosecution and notices database. Click Here to see this.

The conviction database only contains information on those companies and individuals who have been convicted – not on defendants who have been prosecuted and acquitted.

The HSE puts the information onto the prosecution database, 6 weeks after the conviction – in case the company appeals against its conviction or sentence.

The database only goes back to April 1999.

The Notices database contains information on notices imposed from April 2001. Click Here to see this

You can obtain data that goes back to April 1996 if you request directly to the HSE.


 

 

 

 

 







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Details of Deaths/injuries etc reported to the HSE concerning Particular Named companies or Duty holders
Companies and other duty holders are under a legal duty to inform the HSE concerning particular incidents:
- deaths of workers and members of the public;
- major injuries;
- over-three day injuries
- dangerous occurrences
- diseases
- gas incidents
To see more on what needs to be reported, click here

HSE practice: The HSE never provides names of people who have died or been injured and will only provide (anonymised) details of incidents reported by a particular company if, in the view of the HSE disclosure of the information would:
- serve a health and safety positive safety purpose, or
- prevent harm to the public, or
- it would allay concern amongst the public

Reasons
:

The Data Protection Act (the DPA) prevents the HSE from providing, to the public, names of any individuals who have died or been injured.
  The DPA does not, however, prevent the HSE from providing details of those incidents without providing the names of the individuals involved (i.e.‘anonymised’).
However, this information is considered to be ‘relevant information’ - and can lawfully only be disclosed under certain limited exceptions.

The only exemption that is likely to apply is if the provision of information serves the "purpose of any function" of the HSC/E - which the HSE defines as:
- serving a health and safety positive safety purpose, or
- preventing harm to the public, or
- allaying concern amongst the public


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Reports of HSE inspections or investigations
Reports of inspections and investigations undertaken by the HSE inspectors into companies and other duty holders

HSE Practice: it appears to be HSE practice not to provide you with the reports of the inspection or investigation itself, but to provide you with summaries of this report. Para 1.77 of GAP 1 states

‘There is no right to have a copy of the inspection or investigation report itself … However, in most cases factual aspects of a report – e.g. the premises inspected, the data of inspection, what was found, any breaches of health and safety legislation, any action required and the date by which it is required …. in particular, care should be taken not to disclose information on the reasons inspectors exercised their discretion in a particular way as the cumulative effect of such disclosure could adversely affect HSE’s abilities to carry out its functions."

Reasons: Information collected by HSE inspectors should not be released, but the HSE seems to accept that disclosure of some information from these reports would "serve the purpose of HSC/E’s functions" and therefore be disclosable unless the HSE is of the view that release of the information came within one of the exceptions of the Open Government Code and would cause significant harm.

CCA Comments: GAP 1 states that: "care should be taken not to disclose information on the reasons inspectors exercised their discretion in a particular way as the cumulative effect of such disclosure could adversely affect HSE’s abilities to carry out its functions," – however the test that should be used by the HSE is whether significant harm would be disclosed by the disclosure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Witness Statements
When HSE undertake investigations into reported incidents they take statements from witnesses.

HSE Practice: The HSE is not willing to disclose witness statements to any member of the public even if the statements relate to an investigation concerned with an injury or death and the member of the public (who wants a copy of the statements) is either the injured person or a member of the bereaved family.

The only exception to this is when the witness who gave the statements consents to their release.

Even when the statements are sought for the purposes of an inquest, the HSE does not provide the statements. In fact the HSE writes to coroners informing them that they should not release any information or statements which the HSE has provided the coroner for the purposes of a forthcoming inquest

Reason: a 'witness statement' is information obtained "as a result of the exercise of" HSE inspectors powers and so by section 28(7) can only be disclosed in limited situations which the HSE does not consider exists.

CCA Comment: HSE’s interpretation of the exemptions is particularly problematic when it comes to bereaved families who would like copies of witness statements prior to an inquest.

It appears to be HSE’s view that inquests:
- are not 'legal proceedings" or;
- do not serve a "positive health and safety purpose"
and therefore disclosure would not be lawful

If the HSE changed its mind on this point (so disclosure would not be unlawful) the HSE could only prevent disclosure of the statements if:
- the witness would not consent to the disclosure. and;
- it could show that disclosure both fell into one of the exemptions of Part 2 of the Open Government Code, and would cause significant harm.

It is possible, for example, that the HSE may be of the view that disclosure of the statement "would prejudice law enforcement and legal proceedings" [Exemption 4] if, for example, the HSE was still considering prosecution.

However, even then, the HSE must be of the view that disclosure of the statement would cause 'significant harm'. Click here to see how the HSE interprets significant harm.

To read more on HSE's policy on not allowing coroners to disclose statements to bereaved families prior to an inquest. Click Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 






 

 

 


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Reasons for Decisions not to prosecute companies or directors
Bereaved families or injured workers are often interested in why the HSE has made a decision not to prosecute a company/director or if it has decided to prosecute a company, why no individual manager or director.

HSE Practice: In deciding whether or not to prosecute the HSE should consider (a) the tests set out in the Crown Prosecution Service’s Code of Crown Prosecutors and (b) the criteria set out in HSE’s own Enforcement Policy Statement.

In effect the HSE, the HSE must decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute and if there is, whether the criteria set out in paras 39-41 of the Enforcement Policy Statement apply (to see these click here).

It is the HSE practice to give families or injured workers very limited information as to why the HSE have decided not to prosecute. Sometimes, the HSE simply says there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute, and nothing else.

The practice is very different from the way the CPS deals with bereaved families where detailed reasons are provided.

HSE Reasons: The HSE gives different reasons for why disclosure is not possible. A decision not to prosecute is based on evidence collected by HSE inspectors. This is information that cannot be disclosed unless it serves the purposes of the function of the HSE – and the HSE does not consider providing details of reasons not to prosecute (even to bereaved families) serves HSE’s purposes.…..


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Appealing decisions of the HSE not to release information
You can appeal against a decision by the HSE not to provide you information.
The HSE will set up a Panel that will normally consist of a member of the HSE’s three person executive Board, another senior HSE official and an independent members from outside HSE.

GAP 1 says that:

"as far as possible none of the members of the panel will have been connected with the original decision to refuse to supply all or part of the information requested, or with the assessment of the charges. HSE’s Open Government Branch [now known as ….] will provide the Secretariat for the panel will coordinate the handling of the complaint."

Appendix G to GAP 1 gives further information on procedure of this panel. To see this, click here.

If you are still dissatisfied with the Panel’s decision, you can make a complaint to the ombudsman. Click Here for information on how to do this.

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How to obtain the information
If you are a bereaved relative, or an injured worker you should first seek the information from the inspector undertaking the investigation into the death or injury.

If the information you are seeking does not relate to a particular investigation or inspection, we would suggest that you write to:

Keith Pritchard,
External Engagement Branch,
Health and Safety Executive
Rose Court,
2 Southwark Bridge,
London SE1

or e-mail him, by clicking here

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HSC's Enforcement Policy Statement (Excerpt)

39 Subject to the above, HSC expects that, in the public interest, enforcing authorities should normally prosecute, or recommend prosecution, where, following an investigation or other regulatory contact, one or more of the following circumstances apply. Where:
death was a result of a breach of the legislation;4
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;
there has been reckless disregard of health and safety requirements
there have been repeated breaches which give rise to significant risk, or persistent and significant poor compliance;
work has been carried out without or in serious non-compliance with an appropriate licence or safety case;
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;
there has been a failure to comply with an improvement or prohibition notice; or there has been a repetition of a breach that was subject to a formal caution;
false information has been supplied wilfully, or there has been an intent to deceive, in relation to a matter which gives rise to significant risk;
inspectors have been intentionally obstructed in the lawful course of their duties.

Where inspectors are assaulted, enforcing authorities will seek police assistance, with a view to seeking the prosecution of offenders.
40 HSC also expects that, in the public interest, enforcing authorities will consider prosecution, or consider recommending prosecution, where following an investigation or other regulatory contact, one or more of the following circumstances apply:

it is appropriate in the circumstances as a way to draw general attention to the need for compliance with the law and the maintenance of standards required by law, and conviction may deter others from similar failures to comply with the law;
a breach which gives rise to significant risk has continued despite relevant warnings from employees, or their representatives, or from others affected by a work activity.
Prosecution of individuals
41 Subject to the above, enforcing authorities should identify and prosecute or recommend prosecution of individuals if they consider that a prosecution is warranted. In particular, they should consider the management chain and the role played by individual directors and managers, and should take action against them where the inspection or investigation reveals that the offence was committed with their consent or connivance or to have been attributable to neglect on their part and where it would be appropriate to do so in accordance with this policy. Where appropriate, enforcing authorities should seek disqualification of directors under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.
 
4 Health and safety sentencing guidelines regard death resulting from a criminal act as an aggravating feature of the offence. If there is sufficient evidence, HSC considers that normally such cases should be brought before the court. However, there will be occasions where the public interest does not require a prosecution, depending on the nature of the breach and the surrounding circumstances of the death. Back

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To download the whole Enforcement Policy Statement, Click Here (PDF)



Annex G to GAP 1
HSE - INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PANEL
NOTES ON PROCEDURE - ROLE OF THE OPEN GOVERNMENT BRANCH

1.G9 Unless the Director General personally decides that a complaint is well founded or that it should be dealt with otherwise, the complaint will be submitted to the Panel described in paragraph 10 below.
1.G10 The Panel will consist of a member of the Executive (who will act as Chairman of the panel), another senior (or recently retired) officer of the Executive (normally a Board member), and a third person from outside the Executive, usually a representative of business and industry. These arrangements will continue until the Executive agrees otherwise. The membership of the Panel itself may change from time to time.
1.G11 An official will be appointed to act as secretary to the Panel; until further notice this will be an official from HSE’s Strategy Division Open Government Branch (see Appendix).
1.G12 The secretary will provide the Panel members with the complaint itself, an indication of issues the Panel is being invited to address and any necessary background material.
1.G13 The Chairman may wish to invite the Panel to meet during the complaint process in order to discuss the issues involved and to agree any final conclusions. The members of the Panel will consider the complaint and may request additional information.
1.G14 If the Panel is convened, the secretary makes a note of the discussion and of any conclusions/decisions reached and will communicate these to the Director General.
1.G15 In the event of a disagreement, the Chairman will seek to bring the Panel to unanimity. In the event of a minority view on the Panel, that view and the reasons for it will also be communicated to the Director General.
1.G16 The Director General will communicate to the complainant:
a the recommendations of the Panel and its reasons;
b the Director General’s decision in light of the Panel’s recommendations and reasons.
1.G17 HSE will endeavor to reach a decision on a complaint within 6 weeks of the date of its receipt by the Director General. Should longer time be necessary, the secretary will advise the complainant accordingly.

Appendix
1.G18 The Open Government Branch (OGB) will provide staff to act as the secretariat to the complaint panel.
1.G19 The secretariat will invite suitable officials/external candidates to make up the three members of the panel.
1.G20 The secretariat will liaise with other HSE Directorates and Divisions relevant to the complaint and will invite them to submit documents and copies of all relevant correspondence that have a bearing on the complaint. OGB will use these documents to prepare a Definition of Issues for the Panel. This will provide a full background to the complaint as well as indicating the issues the Panel is being invited to address.
1.G21 The secretary will write formally to Panel members, confirming receipt of the complaint and confirming arrangements for the panel.
1.G22 The secretary will takes notes/minutes at any Panel meetings as appropriate and provide general administrative support to the Chairman and Panel members as required.
1.G23 The secretary will draft a note for clearance by the Chairman and any final recommendations/decision for the panel Chairman for forwarding to the Director General.

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Page last updated on June 9, 2003