Analysis of Penalties Imposed on Organisations for Breaching Safety and Health Regulations in the United Kingdom

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background: The study analyzes penalties imposed on organizations for breaching safety and health regulations. The research questions are as follows: what are the commonly breached safety and health regulations? How proportional are penalties imposed on organizations for breaching health and safety regulations in the United Kingdom? Methods: The study employed sequential explanatory mixed research strategies for better understanding of health and safety penalties imposed on organizations. Actual health and safety convictions and penalties data for 10 years (2006 to 2016) were obtained through the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (HSE) public register for convictions. Overall, 2,217 health and safety cases were analyzed amounting to total fines of £37,179,916, in addition to other wide-ranging penalties. For thorough understanding, eight interviews were conducted with industry practitioners, lawyers, and HSE officials as part of the study qualitative data.
Results: Findings show that the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act accounted for 46% of all HSE prosecution cases in the last decade. This is nearly half of the total safety and health at work prosecutions.
Moreover, there is widespread desire for organizations to comply with the HSWAct, but route fines are seen as burdensome and inimical to business growth.
Conclusion: A key deduction from the study reveal significant disproportionality concerning penalties imposed on organizations for breaching safety and health regulations. On aggregate, small companies tend to pay more for health and safety offenses in a ratio of 1:2 compared to large companies. The study also reveals that the HSW Act accounted for nearly half of the total safety and health at work prosecutions in the last decade.

참고문헌 (Reference)

• 1 Knutt E, "Warburtons hit with £2m fine for worker’s mixer fall"
• 2 Kuzmanic M, "Validity in qualitative research: interview and the appearance of truth through dialogue" 18 (18): 39-50, 2009
• 3 Sheret R, "The shape of future health and safety fines"
• 4 Fidderman H, "The fine gap in deterrence"
• 5 Polinsky AM, "The Economic theory of public law enforcement" 38 : 76-, 2000
• 6 Augustin K, "The 2016 health and safety sentencing guidelines: How have things changed for companies?"
• 7 Warburton C, "Step by step to record fines"
• 8 Somekh B, "Research methods in the social sciences" Sage 37-, 2005
• 9 Creswell JW, "Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches" Sage Publications 11-39, 2003
• 10 Löfstedt RE, "Reclaiming health and safety for all: an independent review of health and safety legislation" Health and Safety Review Team Department for Work and Pensions 41-, 2011
• 11 Gaskell G, "Qualitative research with text, image and sound" Sage 336-350, 2000
• 12 OSHA, "Occupational safety and health and economic performance in small and medium-sized enterprises: a review" The EU-OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Administration 5-8, 2009
• 13 OECD, "Occupational Accidents in OECD Countries" The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Workplace Accident 2012
• 14 HSE, "Managing for health and safety. Guidance for regulatory staff on the practice of assessing health and safety management" Health and Safety Executive Books 25-, 2010
• 15 HSE, "Making an impact on SME compliance behaviour: an evaluation of the effect of interventions upon compliance with health and safety legislation in small and medium sized enterprises" Health and Safety Executive 66-, 2005
• 16 DWF, "Magistrates can now levy unlimited fines in Health & Safety cases"
• 17 Kvale S, "InterViews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing" Sage 37-, 1996
• 18 HSE, "Industries. Estimated rate of self-reported work-related illness and nonfatal injury by industry1 for people working in the last 12 months"
• 19 IOSH, "Health and safety sentencing guidelines one year on: the rise in fines and the actions companies can take to prevent them" Institution of Occupational Safety and Health 01-3, 2017
• 20 Tashakkori A, "Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioural research" Sage 42-, 2003
• 21 OECD, "Guidance on developing safety performance indicators related to chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response guidance for industry" The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OCED Environment, health and safety 34-, 2008
• 22 HSE, "Firm fines £1million after young worker killed by exploding tyre"
• 23 Hallett L, "Court of appeal ruling about fines for health and safety crimes" Health and Safety Board 13-, 1998
• 24 최기흥, "Control of Industrial Safety Based on Dynamic Characteristics of a Safety Budget-Industrial Accident Rate Model in Republic of Korea" 한국산업안전보건공단 산업안전보건연구원 8 (8): 189-197, 2017
• 25 HSE, "Better business"
• 26 Bailey S, "An innovative economic incentive model for improvement of the working environment in Europe, 5" European Foundation Centre 1995
• 27 Miceli TJ, "A simple theory of increasing penalties for repeat offenders" 39-, 2004
• 28 Arewa AO, "A review of construction SME’s safety performance;where are we and why?" 19-, 2013
• 29 Arewa AO, "A review of compliance with health and safety and safety regulations and economic performance in construction SMEs" 231-, 2012
• 30 BERR Improving outcomes from health and safety, "A report to Government by the better regulation executive" Department for Business Enterprises and Regulatory Reform 2008