RiskUKOctober2017

BSIA Briefing
Preventing injury in the workplace should
be a key concern for any employer, of
course, but it ought to be of particular
relevance for employers in our business sector
due to the potentially dangerous environments
and situations in which security personnel can
and do find themselves.
For their part, employers have a legal Duty of
Care towards their employees and any
demonstrable failure to fulfil this obligation can
impact severely on the host business. Those
negative impacts can range from low staff
morale and high staff turnover through to
financial penalties, reputational damage and
even prosecutions in a Court of Law.
In February last year, new guidelines were
issued by the Sentencing Council for Health and
Safety, food and corporate manslaughterrelated
sentencing, enabling the courts to issue
significantly larger fines to those employers
who breach their Duty of Care towards their
employees. Prior to the new guidance being
issued, fines for serious breaches would
typically run to several hundred thousand
pounds, but under the new guidelines, fines
can start at several million pounds for a large
organisation that’s found to be highly culpable
in what’s defined as a Harm Category 1 incident.
Courts are given guidance on how to
determine the offence category using
culpability and harm factors, which are then
used to determine an offending organisation’s
fine from a matrix of suggested ranges.
Culpability is determined to be ‘High’ if an
organisation is proven to have fallen far short
of the appropriate standard, for instance by
failing to put in place measures that are
recognised standards in the industry, ignoring
concerns raised by employees or others, failing
to make appropriate changes following prior
incident(s) exposing risks to Health and Safety
and allowing breaches to subsist over time.
‘Aggravating factors’
The harm category is determined by the
likelihood of the risk of harm created by the
offending organisation’s breach alongside the
seriousness of the harm at risk of being
realised. For example, a Harm Category 2
means that the offending organisation’s breach
risked a high likelihood of harm that could
amount to physical or mental impairment which
has a substantial and long-term effect on the
sufferer’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day
activities, an effect on their ability to return to
work or, alternatively, a progressive, permanent
or irreversible condition.
For a large organisation – ie one in which the
turnover or equivalent is £50 million and over
Health and Safety Issues in
the Security Business Sector
Managing Health and Safety is essential for any business
operating in the UK. Failing to adequately do so can leave an
organisation vulnerable to a number of considerable
business risks. Here, James Kelly discusses Health and Safety
and how various initiatives are helping to address issues
prevalent in the security sector
per annum – that’s found to have high
culpability and a Harm Category 2, the starting
point for an imposed fine would be £1,100,000
within a category range of between £500,000
and £2,900,000.
In addition, there are a number of
‘aggravating factors’ which can result in an
upward adjustment from the starting point. In
some cases, it may be deemed appropriate to
move outside of the identified category range.
With this in mind, it’s vitally important for
employers within the security business sector
to be aware of their Health and Safety
obligations and ensure that they take all of the
necessary steps to prevent Health and Safety
incidents from occurring. The Health and Safety
Executive’s (HSE) website can assist firms in
identifying what they must do to comply with
Health and Safety legislation, while there are a
number of additional resources available to
help in managing this critical facet of business.
Some of the simple things companies can do
to manage this discipline include writing a
Health and Safety policy, providing employees
with training and information, providing the
James Kelly: CEO of the British
Security Industry Association
19
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