The victim died on a farm when his dumper truck overturned burying him in its load.
Held: The prosecutor needed to establish a prima facie case that the results required by the Act had not been achieved. He need only establish that a risk of injury arose out of the state of affairs at the place of work, and need not point to a specific breach of any duty. It was then for the employer to establish any exception. The jury had accepted the case for the prosecution, which was that he was directly involved in the works and that the way they were carried on was subject to his specific instructions and control. The appeal failed.
Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Brown of Eaton-under Heywood, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
[2008] UKHL 73, [2009] 1 WLR 1, [2009] 2 All ER 645, [2009] ICR 263
Bailii, HL, Times
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Chargot Ltd (T/A Contract Services) and Others, Regina v CACD 13-Dec-2007
The defendant company appealed against its conviction under the 1974 Act after a driver was buried under the load when his truck overturned on a work-site.
Held: The appeal failed. The policy of the 1974 Act was to impose a positive burden on . .
Cited – Nimmo v Alexander Cowan and Sons Ltd HL 1967
The employer was prosecuted under the 1961 Act.
Held: the burden of proving that it was not reasonably practicable to make and keep a place of work safe rested upon the defendant employer. If an exception was to be established, it was for the . .
Cited – Lockhart v Kevin Oliphant Ltd HCJ 1993
One of the company’s employees was electrocuted and died when a street lamp he was erecting touched an overhead power line. It was charged with a contravention of sections 2(1) and (2) and 33(1)(a) of the 1974 Act. The sheriff acquitted the . .
Cited – Regina v Board of Trustees of the Science Museum CA 26-May-1993
The appellants were convicted of failing to conduct their undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health and safety. One of their buildings . .
Cited – Commission v United Kingdom (Social Policy) ECJ 18-Jan-2007
The Commission sought a declaration that, by restricting the duty of employers to care for the health and safety of their employees ‘so far as reasonably practicable’, the United Kingdom had failed to fulfil its obligations under article 5(1) and . .
Cited – Adamson T/A John Adamson and Sons v Procurator Fiscal, Lanark HCJ 31-Oct-2000
The appellant farmers were charged with a contravention of section 3(1) in respect that they failed to ensure that an Ayrshire bull which they kept in a field and attacked a man who was working on the grass verge of an adjacent public highway was . .
Cited – Regina v Brown (K) CACD 1984
Jury Directions: Common Element in Several Charges
The defendant was accused of fraudulently inducing the investment of money. inducing four people to acquire shares in a company by making misleading statements. The particulars given in the count identified five statements allegedly made by him in . .
Cited – Regina v Porter CACD 19-May-2008
Everyday risks may be outwith Health and Safety
The defendant appealed against his conviction under the 1974 Act. He was headmaster at a private school. A child of three jumped from steps in the playground injured his head and was taken to hospital where he contracted MRSA and died.
Held: . .
Cited – Sheldrake v Director of Public Prosecutions; Attorney General’s Reference No 4 of 2002 HL 14-Oct-2004
Appeals were brought complaining as to the apparent reversal of the burden of proof in road traffic cases and in cases under the Terrorism Acts. Was a legal or an evidential burden placed on a defendant?
Held: Lord Bingham of Cornhill said: . .
Cited – Regina v Lambert HL 5-Jul-2001
Restraint on Interference with Burden of Proof
The defendant had been convicted for possessing drugs found on him in a bag when he was arrested. He denied knowing of them. He was convicted having failed to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that he had not known of the drugs. The case was . .
Cited – Regina v Johnstone HL 22-May-2003
The defendant was convicted under the 1994 Act of producing counterfeit CDs. He argued that the affixing of the name of the artist to the CD was not a trade mark use, and that the prosecution had first to establish a civil offence before his act . .
Cited – Davies v Health and Safety Executive CACD 18-Dec-2002
The court considered whether the reverse burden of proof in a statute creating offences is compatible with the presumption of innocence enshrined in Article 6(2) of the ECHR. The judge had ruled against a submission that section 40 was not . .
Cited – Wotherspoon v HM Advocate 1978
The Lord Justice General set out the requirements to establish an offence under section 37(4) of the Act. Where the officer of the company had no actual knowledge of the breach of the regulations, the question was whether he should have been put on . .
Cited – Attorney General’s Reference (No 1 of 1995); Regina v B; Regina v F CACD 30-Jan-1996
The offence of accepting an unauthorised deposit requires both knowledge of the act and an agreement to it. Where ‘consent’ is alleged against him, a defendant has to be proved to know the material facts which constitute the offence by the body . .
Cited – Regina v P Ltd and Another CACD 11-Jul-2007
A child had been injured when a load fell from a fork lift truck. It was said not to have been secured as required by Health and Safety Regulations. The company was to be prosecuted. The prosecutor appealed a preliminary ruling that in order to . .
Cited – Beckingham, Regina v CACD 22-Mar-2006
The court allowed the defendant’s appeal against her conviction under section 7 of the 1974 Act in relation to an outbreak of legionnaires disease traced to the cooling towers of an air-conditioning system for which she, the building owners’ . .
Appeal from – Chargot Ltd (T/A Contract Services) and Others, Regina v CACD 13-Dec-2007
The defendant company appealed against its conviction under the 1974 Act after a driver was buried under the load when his truck overturned on a work-site.
Held: The appeal failed. The policy of the 1974 Act was to impose a positive burden on . .
Cited by:
Cited – Baker v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd and Others SC 13-Apr-2011
The court was asked as to the liability of employers in the knitting industry for hearing losses suffered by employees before the 1989 Regulations came into effect. The claimant had worked in a factory between 1971 and 2001, sustaining noise induced . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Health and Safety, Crime
Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.278660
