Health and safety fines against companies have risen significantly in the past year as a result of new sentencing guidelines that came into force on 1 February 2016. According to Osborne Clarke, which made a Freedom of Information Act request along with the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the largest fine was £5m for the Alton Towers theme park rollercoaster crash. A further 19 fines of £1m or more included Foodles Production’s’ fine of £1.6m for actor Harrison Ford’s broken leg while filming Star Wars: the Force Awakens. The largest 20 fines cost a total of £38.6m, compared to £13.5m in 2015 and £4.3m in 2014.
09 February 2017
Big fines
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Hugh James—Jonathan Askin
London corporate and commercial team announces partner appointment
Michelman Robinson—Daniel Burbeary
Firm names partner as London office managing partner
Kingsley Napley—Jonathan Grimes
Firm appoints new head of criminal litigation team
NEWS
Hugh James has secured 500 places on King’s College London’s new AI Literacy for Law course as part of a major firm-wide push to strengthen its responsible use of generative artificial intelligence
The criminal courts will sit to their maximum capacity next year, after the Lord Chancellor David Lammy lifted the cap on Crown Court sitting days
The Lord Chancellor David Lammy has set out his plans for ‘Blitz courts’, a national listing framework and other elements of the Leveson reforms
A former Commerzbank analyst has been sentenced to eight months in prison for lying during an employment tribunal hearing
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has joined with 60 data protection authorities from around the world to call for ‘urgent regulatory attention’ to the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI)
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