• Darach Cassidy
    9
    Mōrena koutou

    The lack of a prosecution (that I am aware of) under s44 since HSWA's enactment has been on my mind lately.

    Maybe some of the forum's legal experts can hint at any currently waiting in the wings? Surely from the significant number of prosecutions of late with fines in the hundreds of thousands there are incidences of poor governance and failure to meet obligations under s44?

    Thoughts?
  • Chris Lambeth
    5
    I agree, of the 66 prosecutions to date 61 of those relate to training and competencies. I would have thought that within this there was some level of poor governance that had an influence?
  • Stuart Oakey
    47
    Did those prosecutions include S9 of the General Risk & Workplace Regs which does set out the level of fines?
  • Darach Cassidy
    9
    Surely, or maybe WS need to ensure all of the ducks are fully lined up for the first cab for the first cap off the rank....
  • Deb Cameron
    4
    Hi Chris. That is really interesting! 92%! Could you point me to a report or article about this? I'm keen to know more.
  • Jono Johnson
    57
    Me too Chris, can you put up a link to that info please?
  • Tania Curtin
    112
    I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one thinking about this. It seems highly unlikely that none of the prosecutions to date involved a breach of s44, so I would be interested to know why WS has not been pursuing them and if this is likely to change in the future.
  • Tony Walton
    129
    In the few cases so far, it's likely the officers' actions were not held to be egregious enough to warrant criminalising them on top of imposing very significant financial and reputational penalties on the company. Maybe a three strikes system could cross this line.
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