§ Mr. CryerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many prosecutions have taken place in each year since 1980 in Crown courts for breaches of health and safety legislation; what were the punishements in each case; and what are the figures for 1993 to the most recent practicable date.
§ Mr. McLoughlin[holding answer 24 March 1993]: The Health and Safety Executive's database did not differentiate between types of court prior to 1 April 1988, when a new computer system was introduced. However, some figures for prosecutions by HSE's factory and agricultural inspectorate in Crown courts for the period 1 April 1986 to 31 March 1988 were collated manually and these are included in the table, although they have not been validated. Data for the period 1 April 1988 to 31 March 1992 are shown in the table. Data for 1992–93 are still being collected and will be provided when available.
Annual prosecution data are subject to validation checks, the last of which takes place about 15 months after the year in question. This enables, for instance, account to be taken of the results of appeals. For that reason, both the 1991–92 figures and the data still to be provided are provisional.