Commercial law firm Maclay Murray & Spens (MMS) is urging Scottish industry firms to create board level supervision of health and safety regimes.

The call comes at a time when a High Court appeal, along an expected consultation by the Scottish Sentencing Council, is expected to bring in a more stringent health and safety regime to Scotland.

The country looks set to follow in the footsteps of England and Wales as tough new sentencing guidelines are being introduced, which could increase potential fines by up to 10 times.

Sentencing judges now asses the seriousness of a health and safety breach, the level of harm done to employees, and the size of the offending business to decide the level of a fine. With size measured by revenue, it can have an especially large impact on relatively low margin industries, such as manufacturing and construction, where serious health and safety matters are most likely to arise.

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Malcolm Gunnyeon, a partner in the health & safety team at MMS, said: "Although Scottish courts are not bound by the English sentencing guidelines, the legislation on health and safety at work is the same, and it seems inconceivable that it should effectively become far cheaper to injure an employee in Scotland than in England or Wales.

"Judges are already taking note of the English guidelines, and the Scottish Sentencing Council is expected to start a consultation on guidelines for Scotland soon. A decision in the High Court, expected later this month, could further accelerate the application of these far more severe fines in Scotland.

"If, or perhaps more likely when, Scotland follows the route taken in England, the new rules will apply immediately to cases being sentenced, irrespective of the date of the incident or offence, and that means that many pending prosecutions could have far greater consequences for the offending firms. Fines for breaches involving death have always rightly been high, but now even those resulting even only in the risk of injury could rocket from tens of thousands of pounds to hundreds of thousands for larger businesses."

(Picture: Malcolm Gunnyeon, Partner at Maclay Murray & Spens)

(LM/CD)