Delays in bringing cases to Court
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 1:07 pm
It's often mentioned how long H&S cases take to get to Trial, the most significant one that comes to mind recently was a Tyre Fitter death that occurred in 2006!
The inquest didn't take place until 2013 and the Court Case was 2016.
Inquest in Press: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... fears.html
Court Case June 2016 http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/firm-fines ... ding-tyre/
We had an interesting IOSH Branch meeting yesterday:
Excellent speakers, including a personal account from Louise Taggart, who lost her youngest brother in 2005. Her account here makes very interesting reading, a number of issues with the process, not least regarding the 3 individuals not facing Trial due to Prosecution mess-ups.
http://hazardscampaign.org.uk/fack/abou ... damson.pdf
David Butter, a principal HSE Inspector covering Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire (he has a team of just 6 to cover that area), and an H&S specialist lawyer, Alan Milband.
Some moving and fascinating tales - learnt a lot.
One of the things that came out in the Q&A was the delays in cases coming to trial. A large lump of that is due to the legal systems.
In Scotland, Louise spoke of the number of people their case was bounced around in the Crown Office before eventually getting to Trial.
Alan spoke about the number of times cases in English Courts get put back and how a case he is involved with has already had it's trial date put back by a year, increments of several months at a time, all from the Court Service process.
My personal experience this week, I was going to go to Lincoln Crown Court today to observe the case against martin baker Aircraft for the fatality of the Red Arrows Pilot in 2011.
After MoD/Air Accident Branch investigations and the Coroners Inquest in 2014, the case was passed to HSE and following their review of the evidence found during the inquiry, they decided to prosecute under HSWA.
The company's accused of breaching section 3 (1) by failing to conduct its undertaking in relation to the design, manufacture, supply and support of the Mark 10b ejection seat in a way that did not expose non-employees to risk.
They didn't enter a pleas at their Magistrates hearing in January as it was passed up to the Crown Court for 'Plea and Trial Preparation' with a date of 17 Feb.
I checked the Court Listings first thing this morning and it wasn't showing on today's list, so I rang the Court to find that it has been put back 3 months until 17 May. So already a 5 month gap between Magistrates and Crown Court and there might yet be further delays. No wonder the national press get bored with reporting things...
One final thing to have been gleaned from the branch Meeting yesterday was the HSE position when dealing with the Coroners Court.
The HSE will not consider, or perhaps make public their intent to prosecute until after the Coroners Court, hence the delays in the Tyre Fitter death I related at the beginning on this.
When the HSE give any evidence to the Coroner's Court, they will take care to only relate the information the Coroner needs to perform their duties, they will not give away other details, such as lines of enquiry that they are following in potential criminal proceedings.
They will 'keep their powder dry' for later...
The inquest didn't take place until 2013 and the Court Case was 2016.
Inquest in Press: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... fears.html
Court Case June 2016 http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/firm-fines ... ding-tyre/
We had an interesting IOSH Branch meeting yesterday:
Excellent speakers, including a personal account from Louise Taggart, who lost her youngest brother in 2005. Her account here makes very interesting reading, a number of issues with the process, not least regarding the 3 individuals not facing Trial due to Prosecution mess-ups.
http://hazardscampaign.org.uk/fack/abou ... damson.pdf
David Butter, a principal HSE Inspector covering Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire (he has a team of just 6 to cover that area), and an H&S specialist lawyer, Alan Milband.
Some moving and fascinating tales - learnt a lot.
One of the things that came out in the Q&A was the delays in cases coming to trial. A large lump of that is due to the legal systems.
In Scotland, Louise spoke of the number of people their case was bounced around in the Crown Office before eventually getting to Trial.
Alan spoke about the number of times cases in English Courts get put back and how a case he is involved with has already had it's trial date put back by a year, increments of several months at a time, all from the Court Service process.
My personal experience this week, I was going to go to Lincoln Crown Court today to observe the case against martin baker Aircraft for the fatality of the Red Arrows Pilot in 2011.
After MoD/Air Accident Branch investigations and the Coroners Inquest in 2014, the case was passed to HSE and following their review of the evidence found during the inquiry, they decided to prosecute under HSWA.
The company's accused of breaching section 3 (1) by failing to conduct its undertaking in relation to the design, manufacture, supply and support of the Mark 10b ejection seat in a way that did not expose non-employees to risk.
They didn't enter a pleas at their Magistrates hearing in January as it was passed up to the Crown Court for 'Plea and Trial Preparation' with a date of 17 Feb.
I checked the Court Listings first thing this morning and it wasn't showing on today's list, so I rang the Court to find that it has been put back 3 months until 17 May. So already a 5 month gap between Magistrates and Crown Court and there might yet be further delays. No wonder the national press get bored with reporting things...
One final thing to have been gleaned from the branch Meeting yesterday was the HSE position when dealing with the Coroners Court.
The HSE will not consider, or perhaps make public their intent to prosecute until after the Coroners Court, hence the delays in the Tyre Fitter death I related at the beginning on this.
When the HSE give any evidence to the Coroner's Court, they will take care to only relate the information the Coroner needs to perform their duties, they will not give away other details, such as lines of enquiry that they are following in potential criminal proceedings.
They will 'keep their powder dry' for later...
