Health and Safety fines (FOI)

Request

This year, the States Employment Board was been fined £60,000 after an engineer’s hand got trapped in a water pump that started as he worked to remove a blockage. In 2017, the SEB was fined £50,000 by the Royal Court, after pleading guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989 (HSW Law).

When the States or a States department or body is fined, as in these case? where does the fine end up? Is there a special fund or the like or does it go to the Treasury?

Response

Health & Safety fines are charged to the relevant Government Department responsible for the incident.

The fine income is credited to the Viscounts revenue budget. The Viscount Department is a Non-Ministerial Department. Any underspend within the Viscounts Department at the end of the financial year, which may be due to windfall fine income received in the year, is dealt with as part of the Government’s accounting year end arrangements.