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 service of the notice.
Held: Lord Carloway said, considering the approach of Laws LJ in Yorkshire Rotary: ‘The fundamental problem with the approach of Laws LJ is that it prohibits an appeal on the facts in a situation where it can be demonstrated that the facts or information upon which the inspector proceeded were wrong. That is the essence or purpose of many appeals on the facts. In short, there is no sound basis for restricting appeals under section 24 to what would in essence be a form of judicial review of the inspector’s opinion. An appeal on the facts is a much wider concept and . . it enables an appellant to prove, using whatever competent information is available at the time of the tribunal’s hearing on the appeal, that the factual content of the notice was wrong and that, accordingly, however reasonable the inspector’s opinion was at the time, had the true facts been known, he would not have reached it.’
Lord Carloway
[2016] ScotCS CSIH – 29, 2016 GWD 14-273, 2016 SLT 561, 2016 SC 709
Bailii
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 22
Scotland
Citing:
Crticised – Hague (Inspector of Health and Safety) v Rotary Yorkshire Ltd CA 11-Jun-2015
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 . .
Cited by:
Appeal from Inner House – 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.564409