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Face the Facts: Fine Justice

Fine Justice

21/01/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Face the Facts, Fine Justice

John Waite investigates the fines for fatal health and safety mistakes that are never paid

John Waite investigates how some companies guilty of serious health and safety breaches go into administration and therefore avoid paying fines.

John Waite presents the investigative consumer series. 

Efforts by the Health and Safety Executive to ensure heavy punishment for serious breaches of regulations are often undermined by laws which are aimed at companies rather than the people who run them. Firms which go into administration after an accident can simply escape any penalty while the directors can set up in business again soon afterwards, all perfectly legally. The government has thus far resisted efforts to change the law to make it easier to prosecute individual directors. John hears how one firm, found guilty after men died. folded between verdict and sentencing, leaving a penalty of nearly half a million pounds unpaid.

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