Tees Business Tees Business Issue 20 | Page 93

The voice of business in the Tees region | 93 Health and Safety: Legal lessons from explosion at dock Ashley Borthwick, managing associate at leading transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD), discusses the lessons learned from the prosecution earlier this year following an explosion at the oil refinery at Pembroke Dock in 2011 and how the £5m fine follows the trend in increasingly severe penalties imposed for health, safety and environment offences in the UK. A fter an extensive investigation over the course of a number of years, both the operator and contractor involved in the Pembroke Dock oil refinery explosion each pleaded guilty to two health and safety offences. The operator was fined £5m and ordered to contribute £1m towards prosecution costs, one of the largest penalties imposed to date for such offences. The contractor also received a fine of £120,000 and was ordered to contribute towards prosecution costs. These fines reflect the continuing trend of increasingly severe penalties which have been imposed for health and safety offences following new sentencing guidelines introduced in 2016. WBD acted in relation to the case, which concerned the preparation of a tank for cleaning as part of scheduled maintenance at the oil refinery at the dock in Wales. Following the conclusion of the case, WBD hosted a seminar at the Wilton Centre, Teesside, to help share the lessons that can be learnt by organisations across all sectors in order to help effectively manage their risk profile. Nationally recognised as leading health and safety specialist lawyers, WBD offered unique insights drawn both from our participation in the Pembroke case and having been involved in some of the most notable health and safety cases over the last 20 years. The session explored the importance of a critical incident policy and how it should enable a business to maintain control of an investigation and protect its reputation by putting procedures in place to deal with issues such as internal and external communications, document management, requests for information and staff interviews. It also covered the management of contractors and how a failure to effectively engage and manage contractors is a common cause of most serious incidents. The session was a first in a series of seminars and roundtables to help promote the sharing of best practice across a range of topics we find ourselves regularly getting involved with, which will be hosted at the Wilton Centre, where WBD will take office space later this month. WBD has worked with key businesses in Teesside for over 20 years and the Wilton office offers a prime location for our specialist teams, who regularly support our clients in the chemicals sector and other industries throughout the region, to be close at hand and provide insights on topics that matter most. The Wilton Centre, where WBD is opening an office to support its client base on Teesside. Womble Bond Dickinson's dedicated national manufacturing sector team is one of the largest in the UK, with specialists with years of experience of supporting clients with regulatory challenges and handling investigations, inquests and prosecutions.