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.