Crime and Regulatory roundup – July 2025

In the latest edition of Kennedys’ Crime and Regulatory Brief, we look at some of the recent developments in health and safety news and consider what each may indicate for the future.

Work-related stress

Reducing work related ill health has long been a strategic objective of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and in a welcome move last month the HSE launched a free online learning module to help employers who may need some assistance with risk assessment of work-related stress. It includes “step-by-step advice, practical tools and downloadable templates”. The launch coincided with Mental Health Awareness Week and suggests that the HSE will continue with its long term objective to reduce ill health at work. We have not yet seen any prosecutions relating to the risk assessment of ill health through the courts.

Local Authority fines

In April 2025, a county council was fined £6 million following three deaths and multiple injuries over a ten year period on a particular area of a Guided Busway. Whilst many years ago prosecution of public bodies by the HSE was unusual, and the fines imposed appeared to be more lenient than those imposed on corporate organisations, this case demonstrates the continuing trend that that the HSE will prosecute and seek some of the highest fines even where the defendant is a public body.

This is the highest fine imposed on a public authority following a HSE prosecution to date. It appears that an aggravating factor of this case was that the Local Authority did not have what the HSE describe as “basic safety measures” in place, and that they allowed that to continue over a long period of time despite enforcement notices being issued. This included no risk assessment being conducted for five years after the Guided Busway opened, according to the HSE.

Manslaughter prosecutions – on the rise?

Historically, Corporate Manslaughter prosecutions were reserved for the most serious of cases, and in our experience they were only brought by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in respect of fatal incidents involving small to medium sized organisations. A required element of the offence is that the way in which the activities of an organisation were managed or organised by its senior management had to be a substantial element in the breach. Presumably, it was considered easier to evidentially link senior management to the breach in smaller organisations where the hierarchical chain is usually shorter, and management are likely to have a closer link to the day to day activities and decision making.

In recent months, we have seen several announcements by the police or CPS in relation to the launching of complex investigations of manslaughter against individuals, and in relation prosecutions for corporate manslaughter against very large organisations. This appears to indicate a growing willingness on the part of prosecutors to bring corporate manslaughter prosecutions against larger organisations, and an increasing interest in the accountability of senior individuals for gross negligence manslaughter. The consequences for these types of offences can be a significant custodial sentence for individuals, as seen in a recent case involving a smaller organisation in April 2025. In that case an individual was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months in prison following a successful prosecution of gross negligence manslaughter after the deaths of four people on a paddle board tour in 2021.

Police disclosure

In a serious injury or fatal collision, a police investigation can take up to 18 months before a charging decision. Understandably, any material considered capable of prejudicing a criminal investigation before a case is resolved, is often not part of the disclosure given. However, this can mean that insurers and their advisors are often without access to vital material, which if provided, could assist them in making early decisions regarding rehabilitation, interim payments and liability generally. Early disclosure may be considered on the basis it is capable of assisting the injured person. 

Naomi North (Partner in the Crime and Regulatory Team at Kennedys) and Anjali Krishnan (Partner at Stewarts), are part of a wider committee made up of senior police officers, the Crown Prosecution Service, Data Protection Officers and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, working on a number of initiatives to improve consistency in approach when considering early disclosure requests in serious injury or fatal collision cases.