Related insights: Health and Safety

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Building safety in brief: fire safety duties for occupied buildings

24 Nov 2023
Fire safety is changing, with reforms that will introduce new roles and responsibilities while buildings are being designed, built, refurbished and occupied. A number of these changes will come into force in January 2023. This factsheet provides an overview of some of the key obligations once buildings are built and occupied.
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Building Safety with Womble Bond Dickinson

01 Oct 2023
Sweeping changes, on a scale never seen before, are being made across the entire building regime.

Learn more about Building Safety at Womble Bond Dickinson - and how our team of lawyers stay up-to-date on building safety developments across a number of sectors and practice areas.
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Court of Appeal rules that HSE notices can be evidence of 'bad character'

05 Apr 2023
Notices of Contravention served by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) can, in certain circumstances, be admitted as evidence of bad character, the Court of Appeal (CA) has ruled.

A previous Notice of Contravention or Prohibition Notice could potentially be considered evidence of "reprehensible behaviour", the HSE v Evergreen Construction UK Ltd ruling stated, if its content and any subsequent correspondence with the regulator reflect the current proceedings. Bad character can be evidenced by "reprehensible behaviour" as well as previous convictions, as per the Criminal Justice Act 2003. As a result, a Notice of Contravention can be used to establish a "propensity to commit offences of the kind" that a defendant currently faces.
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Protect Duty – what does it actually mean to owners and operators?

27 Feb 2023
Following a public consultation, the proposed introduction of legislation to minimise the risk of a successful terror attack has received overwhelming support from stakeholders in the UK.

The draft Protect Duty bill is set to get its first reading in Spring 2023. Protect Duty, which is also known as "Martyn's Law", was campaigned for by the mother of one the victims of the Manchester Arena attack in 2017. The duty is intended to apply to the whole of the UK with an aim of enhancing security at certain publicly accessible locations and venues to ensure the public is better protected from constantly evolving terror threats.
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New year, new regime – building safety in 2023

11 Jan 2023
The construction industry will see major changes this year as the new building safety regime comes into play. The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) has laid the groundwork, with a number of government consultations taking place late last year - and this year we will see the impact of that as the changes outlined in the BSA filter their way through to the industry with increasing speed. Some of those changes will need secondary legislation, but we have already started to see this trickling through.
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Managers jailed for health and safety failings

23 Jun 2022
There have been two sentencing hearings this month which – while each relates to a different specific risk – together act as examples of a sentencing trend towards tougher penalties for serious health and safety failings, including prison terms for directors.