High health and safety fines extend to non-commercial bodies too, says expert

Sean Elson of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, was commenting on a £400,000 fine handed down by Newcastle Crown Court last week after an incident in which two students fell seriously ill after drinking dangerous amounts of caffeine. The university, which pled guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA), was also ordered to pay £26,468.22 in costs.

"The case illustrates that the new sentencing regime introduced in February 2016 is having a significant effect in the level of fines imposed in relation to health and safety cases and that non-commercial activities of well-meaning public, or quasi-public, bodies such as NHS trusts or in this case a university are not immune from prosecution and large fines if things go wrong," said Elson, a health and safety law expert.

"This case is a reminder for organisations to ensure that activities are properly planned with appropriate risk assessments in place and that the people conducting the activity have been appropriately trained and have adequate information to hand," he said.

A new sentencing guideline, designed for use by the courts in England and Wales in health and safety, corporate manslaughter and food hygiene cases, came into force on 1 February 2016. The guideline has led to higher fines for the largest companies when convicted of the most serious regulatory breaches. Courts must now first assess the seriousness of the offence based on the offender's culpability and the risk of serious harm; while fines are taken from a range depending on the size of the organisation, based on turnover or the equivalent.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the University of Northumberland following an investigation into how two student volunteers came to drink a solution with 100 times the amount of caffeine that should have been taken as part of a sports experiment into the effects of substance. The HSE found that the protocols set out for the experiment, which required the use of 200mg caffeine tablets, had not been followed. The students had been provided with powdered caffeine rather than tablets, and had miscalculated the amount of powder to use.

The court was told that the two students immediately experienced dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shaking and rapid heartbeats after consuming the powder. They were rushed to hospital where their conditions were considered life threatening, and they required dialysis to rid their bodies of the excess caffeine.

"The university completely failed to control the risks during these experiments and two young students were made seriously ill, which resulted in intensive care treatment for a number of nights," said HSE inspector Cain Mitchell. "In other reported cases, people have died after taking doses which were less than those administered to these two students."

"All organisations that engage in activities that might potentially expose people to substances hazardous to health should ensure that the risks are fully identified and strict procedures are devised and followed to ensure that the experiments can be undertaken safely," he said.