In the first of a two-part series, David Branson reports on the end of a century old overlap between civil & criminal liability in health & safety
The implementation of s 69(3) of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 now means that persons injured at work are no longer able to sue in respect of a breach of the employer’s statutory duties under health and safety regulations. As such, this has ended a century old overlap between civil and criminal liability in health and safety, whereby the same safety regulations provided for an action by both an injured party and the regulatory authorities.
There is now a clear split between civil and criminal liability in this area. Civil liability is effectively based on common law negligence, stemming from the principles laid down in the leading case of Wilsons and Clyde Coal v English [1938] AC 57, [1937] 3 All ER 628, and then developed in subsequent cases. There still remains a limited ability to claim under statutes such as the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, although this does not really differ much from
