“A formidable presence in the health and safety market, bringing the firm’s expertise in criminal law to bear on its defence work.”

Chambers UK

We advise organisations, directors and employees across all sectors regarding health and safety investigations and prosecutions. We have particular expertise in defending serious, complex and high-profile matters, for example following fatal accidents, major disasters or other business-critical issues.

Following the implementation of the Sentencing Council’s ‘Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences’ Definitive Guideline, penalties for these offences have risen significantly. Directors and senior managers, as well as employees, risk investigation and prosecution in respect of imprisonable offences. An organisation’s response to an incident, particularly at the outset, is critical to the outcome. We provide specialist advice to support clients in navigating this complex area.

Our strategic, proactive and commercial approach achieves outstanding results. We focus on the best-possible outcome and minimising reputational harm, ensure the minimum of business interruption and recognise the need to maintain strong ongoing working relationships with regulators.

We are ranked for our health and safety expertise in the legal directories, including Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500. We are included in GIR’s list of the world’s leading investigations firms and named as the leading firm in the ‘Financial Crime & Fraud & Regulatory’ category of The Times Best Law Firms 2021.

Expertise

We provide specialist advice and representation to organisations and individuals in areas such as:

• Crisis management.
• Responding to Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Police, Office of Rail and Road, and Local Authority investigations following workplace deaths, serious accidents, and site inspections.
• Regulators’ powers, including compelled requests for documentation and witness interviews.
• Legally privileged internal investigations.
• Notification of Contraventions (NoC) and the Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme, including querying and disputing HSE invoices.
• Challenging enforcement notices (e.g. improvement notices and prohibition notices).
• Remedial action.
• Proactively engaging with regulators to minimise the risk of enforcement action.
• Requests to attend PACE interviews under caution.
• Defending prosecutions for alleged breaches of health and safety law, corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter in the Magistrates’ Court and Crown Court.
• Coroners’ inquests and inquiries.

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