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The number of accidents, near-misses and cases of work related ill-health are eliminated or reduced with good compliance to H&S law. Compliance with legislation ensures that an NHS Trust and its employees are not liable to prosecution, unnecessary costs or bad publicity.
As a general rule, employers are prosecuted for H&S breaches. However, if an employer can show the enforcing authority that they have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the relevant law, and they could not have prevented the accident, the HSE may prosecute individual employees instead (if they are found to be personally responsible for the failure or breach). This, however, is quite rare.
Although prosecution is generally the HSE’s last resort, a number of NHS organisations have been prosecuted for H&S breaches.
1.1.1 Example of prosecution
Defendant: Avon & Wilts Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
On 1/10/2005 an in-patient at Victoria Hospital, Swindon, fell approximately 5.5 metres from a first floor window of a hospital ward resulting in a broken ankle and compression to the vertebrae.
This prosecution case was brought for the following reasons:
- The injured person was a patient under the treatment and care of the trust
- The ward caters for older people with mental health problems, therefore the patients are vulnerable and are mostly confused
- The ward window restrictors were not satisfactory because they were not sufficiently robust and also opened to a gap which is greater than the 100mm set out in the guidance
- There was no inspection system for checking window restrictors
- There was a history of previous similar accidents in this trust
More examples of recent prosecutions can be found on the prosecutions section of the HSE website.