Chapter Five: Sentencing

This section provides information on:
• the levels of fines imposed by the courts subsequent to convictions following reported incidents and;
•  in what courts sentencing takes place.

The prosecution process is different in England/Wales compared to Scotland.
In England and Wales, prosecutions and sentencing takes place in either the Magistrates Court or the Crown court. A Magistrate Court only has the power to impose a maximum sentence of £20,000 for a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 or £5,000 for a breach of a Regulation. A Crown Court has the power to impose unlimited fines in relation to breaches of both the 1974 Act and Regulations.

Unless the defendant pleads ‘non-guilty’ and chooses a trial before a jury in the Crown Court, the decision about the court in which a case is heard (and sentenced) is made by a Magistrate. This decision, however, can be influenced by submissions of the prosecutor – FOD inspector or a lawyer representing FOD.

In Scotland, there are two types of court – the Sheriff Court and the High Court. The Sheriff’s court has similar sentencing powers to a magistrates and a High Court to a Crown Court. The decision as to whether a case should be heard in the Sheriff or High Court is one that is made by the Procurator Fiscal, not the court itself.

Understanding the Tables
In most prosecutions, a single incident will result in one defendant being prosecuted in one court.

However, in relation to a small number of incidents, a prosecution may result in either:
•  one defendant being sentenced for two different offences -one taking place in the magistrates court and the other in the Crown Court or;
•  two separate defendants being sentenced - one in the magistrates court and the other in the Crown Court.

When this happens we have counted is as those the incident resulted in a conviction in the Crown Court.

Since some deaths or injuries may result in more than one defendant being prosecuted the tables tell you what is the average total fine that resulted from a single death or injury – not what is the average fine for each defendant convicted following these incidents.

The tables set out the average fines in the Magistrate and Crown Court. There however are not exact – they have been rounded up to the nearest thousand pounds. They continue to give a good indication of the different levels of fines in the two courts.

A note on Sentencing
It is difficult to interpret sentencing data since the average level of fines can be easily distorted by one or two large fines. Also certain fines that may appear to be large could well be small when compared to the profits or turnover of the company/organisation sentenced; and, conversely, a fine that may appear to be small could well be large compared to the wealth of the company.

Key Statistics

Sentencing tables

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