Appeal against successful appeal against health and safety prohibition notice. Rotary Yorkshire were arguing for a broad interpretation of section 24 and the inspector for a more limited interpretation.
Held: Laws LJ (with whom the other members of the court agreed) said: ‘the question for the inspector is whether there is a risk of serious personal injury. In reason such a question must surely be determined by an appraisal of the facts which were known or ought to have been known to the inspector at the time of the decision. He or she is concerned with the prevention of injury at that time, that is the focus of the provision, which, it should be remembered, contemplates action in a possible emergency. The employment tribunal on appeal are and are only concerned to see whether the facts which were known or ought to have been known justify the inspector’s action.
. . To accede to [Rotary Yorkshire’s] argument would, I think, risk distorting the section 22 function. The primary question for the employment tribunal is whether the issue of the notice was justified when it was done. An inspector may rightly apprehend a risk and be justified in acting on his or her apprehension even though later necessarily unknown events may demonstrate that, in fact, there was no danger. Section 24 is not, in my judgment, to be construed so that it may appear to call in question the propriety of a notice which it may well have been the inspector’s duty to issue at the time.’
Laws, Tomlinson, Kitchin LJJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 696
Bailii
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 22
England and Wales
Cited by:
Crticised – HM Inspector of Health and Safety v Chevron North Sea Ltd SCS 29-Apr-2016
The Inspector had served an enforcement notice as to the condition of an oil rig. The operators fixed the issues identified and appealed. The court now considered whether on such an appeal it should consider only the situation at the time of the . .
Cited – HM Inspector of Health and Safety v Chevron North Sea Ltd SC 8-Feb-2018
The inspector had issued a prohibition notice with regard to the access to a heliport on a North Sea oil rig. The court now considered whether, on a challenge to such a notice, the court was restricted to considering only knowledge available at the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 October 2021; Ref: scu.553845
