Stephen Hepburn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Hepburn on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was between a fatal accident in construction and a conviction on the latest date for which data is available.

Justin Tomlinson

For fatalities in construction (Standard Industrial Classification, section F) reported to HSE between 2006/07 and 2014/15, the average time between the date of the incident and the date of the first hearing where a conviction is recorded is 1208 days. The time between the incident and conviction dates by yearly time bands is as follows:

Date of Conviction	Average number of days between incident date and conviction date
2006/2007	985
2007/2008	1234
2008/2009	1153
2009/2010	1214
2010/2011	1251
2011/2012	1251
2012/2013	1336
2013/2014	1185
2014/2015	1267

Within the overall time frame from fatal incident to conviction a number of discrete stages may be involved and these are performed by different agencies largely out of HSE’s control:

• The police assume primacy initially and retain it until negligent homicide offences have been identified or eliminated.

• Where negligent homicide is suspected, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will consider a file submitted to them by the Police.

• HSE works closely with the police and CPS throughout this phase in accordance with the Work Related Deaths Protocol (WRDP) to which the Police, CPS, HSE and other regulators are signatories.

• Before HSE brings a prosecution it is normal to await the outcome of an inquest held by HM Coroner.

• If a defendant has been charged it can take some time for the case to come to trial particularly where if　it is defended and heard in the Crown Court.

Recognising the importance to victims of ensuring all stages of the process are concluded as quickly as possible, the WRDP National Liaison Committee recently agreed that any decision to prosecute should be made within 3 years of the date of death other than in exceptional circumstances – currently approximately 85% of investigations are completed within this timescale.

For its part HSE has an internal target of completing 95% of fatal accident investigations within 12 months of assuming primacy – attainment is now at 70% and the trend is improving.