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A different view?

04 November 2010 / David Branson
Issue: 7440 / Categories: Features , Health & safety
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David Branson explores the differences between criminal & civil liability for health & safety

In health and safety law there is both civil and criminal liability, and in both cases a general liability and a specific one. In criminal law the general liability exists under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA 1974), which imposes duties on the employer to ensure the health and safety of employees. The specific liability lies under the various subordinate regulations, such as the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2306) (the regulations) which looks mainly at machinery guarding issues. In civil law the general liability lies under the common law tort of negligence, as originally set out in the case of Wilson & Clyde Coal v English [1938] AC 57, [1937] 3 All ER 628, while the specific liability lies under an action for breach of statutory duty, using the same subordinate legislation as exists for criminal law.

The nature of liability can be seen as either fault-based or strict. Fault–based liability

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Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
The ex-wife of a Russian billionaire has won her bid to bring her financial relief claim in London, in a unanimous Court of Appeal decision
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