HSE v S (2019)

Anne Whyte QC successfully defends HSE prosecution after a trial at Worcester Crown Court.

On 3 December 2019, a jury acquitted Company ‘S’, one of the largest employers in Herefordshire, of an allegation under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It had been alleged that the company had exposed employees to risk of harm in the arrangements it made for the operation of its extrusion press within an industrial environment, with the result that an employee was  significantly injured after an accident at work. The company successfully defended the charge by arguing that there had been no exposure to a material risk, that it had taken all reasonably practicable steps to prevent any risk of harm and that the accident in question was not reasonably foreseeable.

Anne Whyte QC was instructed by Jan Burgess and Rosalind Morgan of CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP.