The Health and Safety Executive completed 246 prosecutions in 2024/25, secured a conviction in 96% of them, and saw the courts impose more than £33 million in fines. This page brings together the UK’s health and safety enforcement statistics — prosecutions, conviction rates, fines, improvement and prohibition notices, inspections and the Fee for Intervention scheme — in one fully cited reference.
The figures come from the HSE Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25, the HSE’s annual health and safety statistics for Great Britain, the Sentencing Council’s definitive guideline, and the HSE’s own public registers and prosecution press releases. Every number is linked to its source at the end of the page.
Key facts and figures
- 246 prosecutions were completed by the HSE in 2024/25, with a 96% conviction rate.
- £33m+ in fines were imposed by the courts following HSE convictions in 2024/25.
- ~4,400 enforcement notices were issued in 2024/25 — a five-year low, down from ~7,000 in 2023/24.
- 13,200+ inspections were completed by the HSE in 2024/25, including 7,000+ targeting health risks.
- 86% of fatal investigations were completed within 12 months in 2024/25, beating the 80% target.
- £183 per hour is the Fee for Intervention rate from 1 April 2025, up from £174.
- £6 million — the largest recent fine, imposed on Cambridgeshire County Council in April 2025.
- £10 million is the top of the fine range for health and safety offences by large organisations under the 2016 sentencing guideline.
Figures are the latest available as of July 2026; this page is updated when the HSE publishes its annual report and its Great Britain statistics suite each November.
How many health and safety prosecutions are there in the UK?
The HSE completed 246 criminal prosecutions in 2024/25, almost unchanged from 248 in 2023/24, and 96% of those cases ended in a conviction. Prosecution sits at the top of the enforcement pyramid: the HSE reserves it for the most serious breaches — typically fatal incidents, life-changing injuries, or duty-holders who ignored earlier enforcement notices — and the consistently high conviction rate reflects how selectively cases are brought.
The HSE prosecutes in England and Wales in its own name. In Scotland it investigates and reports cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which decides whether to prosecute. Every conviction is published on the HSE’s public register, which holds convictions for up to ten years and enforcement notices for up to five — a searchable record that insurers, clients and journalists routinely check.
These figures cover HSE enforcement only. Fire safety prosecutions are brought separately by fire and rescue authorities under the Fire Safety Order — we cover those in our sister site’s fire safety prosecution statistics.
How much are companies fined for health and safety offences?
Fines exceeding £33 million were secured from HSE convictions in 2024/25. Set against the roughly 236 convictions implied by the 96% conviction rate, that works out at a simple average of around £140,000 per conviction — though the distribution is heavily skewed, with a handful of multi-million-pound fines against large organisations sitting above a long tail of five- and six-figure penalties.
There is no statutory cap on fines for health and safety offences. The amount is set by the courts using the sentencing guideline, which scales the penalty to the offender’s culpability, the harm risked, and — critically — the size of the organisation, measured by turnover. Fines are paid to the Treasury, not the HSE, and are separate from prosecution costs, compensation claims and the commercial fallout that follows a conviction on the public register.
The following table summarises the headline enforcement measures for 2024/25.
| Measure | 2024/25 figure | Change / detail |
|---|---|---|
| Prosecutions completed | 246 | Down slightly from 248 in 2023/24 |
| Conviction rate | 96% | Convictions secured in 2024/25 completed cases |
| Total fines from convictions | £33m+ | Simple average of ~£140,000 per conviction |
| Enforcement notices issued | ~4,400 | Down from ~7,000 in 2023/24 — a five-year low |
| Improvement / prohibition split | ~3,200 / ~1,200 | 2023/24: ~5,200 improvement, ~1,800 prohibition |
| Inspections completed | 13,200+ | Including 7,000+ targeting work-related health risks |
| Fatal investigations completed within 12 months | 86% | Against an 80% target |
| Fee for Intervention rate | £183/hour | Up from £174 on 1 April 2025 |
Why have health and safety fines risen since 2016?
On 1 February 2016 the Sentencing Council’s definitive guideline for health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety offences came into force, and it transformed the fine landscape. Before the guideline, six-figure fines were unusual even after fatalities. The guideline instead requires courts to work through culpability, the seriousness and likelihood of harm, and the organisation’s turnover — producing fine brackets that rise steeply for larger businesses.
For a large organisation — one with turnover of £50 million or more — the guideline provides for fines of up to £10 million for health and safety offences and up to £20 million for corporate manslaughter, and courts may move beyond those ranges for very large organisations. That framework is what drives the multi-million-pound penalties that now appear every year, and it is why total fines remain above £33 million (in 2024/25) even as prosecution numbers have stayed relatively stable.
Corporate manslaughter convictions are a separate, rarer track under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 — we cover those in our corporate manslaughter statistics page.
What are the largest recent HSE fines?
£6 million — imposed on Cambridgeshire County Council in April 2025 over deaths on its guided busway — is the largest single fine of the past five years. The council pleaded guilty at Cambridge Crown Court to two offences under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 after three members of the public were killed in collisions on the busway between 2015 and 2021, and was ordered to pay £292,460 in costs on top of the fine.
| Organisation | Fine | Date | Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridgeshire County Council | £6m | April 2025 | Three public deaths on the guided busway, 2015–2021; s.3(1) HSWA 1974 |
| British Airways | £3.2m | May 2025 | Two workers seriously injured in falls at Heathrow Terminal 5; Work at Height Regulations 2005 |
| BAM Nuttall Ltd | £2.3m | June 2024 | Worker drowned at Knostrop Weir, Leeds, after a boat capsized; s.2(1) HSWA 1974 |
| Tata Steel (UK) Ltd | £1.5m | July 2025 | Contractor crushed to death on a conveyor at Port Talbot; s.2(1) and s.3(1) HSWA 1974 |
The pattern across these cases is consistent: the failures were foreseeable, the control measures were basic, and in each case the HSE’s investigation found that an adequate risk assessment and safe system of work would have prevented the incident. British Airways’ £3.2 million fine, for example, followed two separate falls from baggage-loading equipment at Terminal 5 — in August 2022 and March 2023 — where known guarding gaps had not been addressed.
How many enforcement notices does the HSE issue?
Around 4,400 enforcement notices were issued by the HSE in 2024/25 — roughly 3,200 improvement notices and 1,200 prohibition notices — the lowest total in five years. That is a fall of more than a third from the ~7,000 notices issued in 2023/24, which comprised around 5,200 improvement and 1,800 prohibition notices.
The two notice types do different jobs. An improvement notice requires a duty-holder to fix a breach of the law within a set period — commonly a missing or inadequate risk assessment, unguarded machinery, or absent training. A prohibition notice stops an activity immediately because the inspector believes it involves a risk of serious personal injury; work cannot lawfully resume until the risk is dealt with. Failing to comply with either notice is itself a criminal offence, and notice breaches are a common route into the prosecution statistics above.
The steep 2024/25 drop in notices is the standout trend in this year’s data. The HSE’s inspection activity remained substantial — 13,200+ inspections were completed in the same period — so the fall in notices is not explained by inspectors staying away. Commentary around the 2024/25 annual report points to resourcing pressures and a shift of inspector time towards targeted health-risk campaigns and post-incident investigation. Whether ~4,400 notices marks a new baseline or a one-year dip will become clear in the next annual release.
How many inspections does the HSE carry out?
More than 13,200 inspections were completed by the HSE in 2024/25, including over 7,000 targeting work-related health risks — such as dust, noise and musculoskeletal hazards — and more than 2,700 intelligence-led visits prompted by concerns, reports and incident data.
The regulator also hit its investigation targets: 86% of fatal investigations were completed within 12 months of the HSE receiving primacy in 2024/25, against a target of 80%. For context, there were 124 workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain in 2024/25, down from 138 the year before — we cover fatality data in depth elsewhere, but it is the backdrop against which the enforcement effort is aimed.
For duty-holders, the practical significance of the inspection numbers is that most HSE contact is proactive, not post-incident. An inspector who calls unannounced will ask for the documents the law requires — risk assessments, training records, maintenance regimes — and the five-step method the HSE itself publishes is the standard they expect those documents to meet.
What is Fee for Intervention and how much does it cost?
£183 per hour is the Fee for Intervention (FFI) rate from 1 April 2025, up from £174 the year before. FFI has operated since October 2012 and is the HSE’s cost-recovery scheme: when an inspector finds a “material breach” of health and safety law — a breach serious enough to require formal written notification — the duty-holder pays for the inspector’s time at the hourly rate.
The bill covers the whole intervention, not just the visit: identifying the breach, writing letters and notices, taking advice and any follow-up work. Because invoices commonly run to hours or days of inspector time, FFI turns even a non-prosecuted breach into a direct cost — one that lands long before any fine, and regardless of whether the case ever reaches court. It is reviewed annually, so the rate typically moves each April.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average HSE fine?
Dividing the £33m+ total imposed in 2024/25 by the roughly 236 convictions implied by the 96% conviction rate gives a simple average of around £140,000 per conviction. The average is pulled upwards by a small number of multi-million-pound fines against large organisations; typical fines for smaller businesses are lower, scaled to turnover under the sentencing guideline.
What is the maximum fine for a health and safety offence in the UK?
Fines are unlimited. The 2016 sentencing guideline sets a range of up to £10 million for health and safety offences and up to £20 million for corporate manslaughter for large organisations (turnover of £50 million or more), and courts can go beyond those ranges for very large organisations.
How many improvement notices did the HSE issue in 2024/25?
Around 3,200 improvement notices were issued in 2024/25, alongside roughly 1,200 prohibition notices — about 4,400 enforcement notices in total, a five-year low and down from around 7,000 notices in 2023/24.
What is the HSE’s conviction rate?
The HSE secured convictions in 96% of the 246 prosecutions it completed in 2024/25. The rate is consistently high because the HSE prosecutes selectively, taking forward only cases with strong evidence of serious breaches.
What is the Fee for Intervention rate for 2025/26?
£183 per hour, effective from 1 April 2025 (up from £174). It applies whenever an HSE inspector finds a material breach of health and safety law, and it covers all of the inspector’s time on the intervention.
Where can I check whether a company has been prosecuted by the HSE?
The HSE publishes public registers of convictions and enforcement notices at hse.gov.uk. Convictions remain on the register for up to ten years and enforcement notices for up to five, searchable by company name, industry and region across Great Britain.
Related guides
- Work-Related Stress Statistics UK: HSE Facts & Data
- Risk Assessment Statistics UK: Compliance Facts & Data
- What is a risk assessment? A guide to UK workplace law
- The 5 steps to risk assessment: how to do one properly
- Who can carry out a risk assessment? The competence question explained
- How often should a risk assessment be reviewed?
Sources & references
- Health and Safety Executive — Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25, executive summary (GOV.UK)
- Health and Safety Executive — Health and safety statistics for Great Britain, 2024/25 annual release
- Health and Safety Executive — Public registers of convictions and enforcement notices
- Sentencing Council — Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences Definitive Guideline
- Health and Safety Executive — Fee for Intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme
- Gordons LLP — HSE prosecution: £3.2 million fine for British Airways for breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (June 2025)
- HSE Media Centre — Tata Steel fined £1.5 million after father-of-three crushed to death at Port Talbot plant (2025)
- IOSH Magazine — The story behind a prosecution: Cambridgeshire County Council’s £6 million guided busways fine (May 2025)
- IOSH Magazine — BAM Nuttall fined £2.345m for failing to plan work (June 2024)
Every case above traces back to a risk that was never properly assessed. Train your team to spot and control hazards before an inspector does.
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, risk assessment and accredited online training for Risk Assessment Training, part of Online CPD Academy.