Over the past few years, the UK has seen some substantial health and safety fines handed out by the HSE. Here is a list of the highest of these penalties.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK has had its hands full with investigating health and safety breaches and dishing out penalties to companies that have failed to adhere to regulations. Fines from recent years reflect the severity of these breaches.
In general, most health and safety-related fines are due to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This stipulates that an employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees. This involves:
Providing and maintaining safe equipment, machinery and systems
Breaches in health and safety legislation have severe consequences and can sometimes result in serious injury or loss of life. Workplace accidents include falls from height, fire and gas explosions, and on-site vehicle accidents. In such cases, employers may have failed to mitigate risks.
The penalties listed include the fine amount and the company's legal costs, where applicable. An alarming observation? The highest fine was in2025. Regardless of the year, penalties highlight the importance of comprehensive health and safety training.
We've examined the UK's biggest health and safety fines over the past few years to help you understand how to avoid the same mistakes. For more penalty information, take a look at the most recent health and safety fines in 2026.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 3(1)
Cambridgeshire County Council was fined £6 million and ordered to pay nearly £300,000 in costs after admitting multiple safety failings on its Guided Busway. Since opening in 2011, it’s been linked to three deaths and several serious injuries, including children hurt at crossing points.
HSE investigators found the council failed to install basic safety measures, such as proper lighting, separation between paths and buses, speed controls, and clear warning signs.
Despite a fatality in 2015, the council delayed carrying out a risk assessment until 2016, and even then, overlooked key dangers. Instead of acting on the HSE's enforcement notices, they appealed, during which time more incidents occurred.
The HSE described the failings as "completely preventable," saying the tragedy could have been avoided with simple, common safety precautions.
H&S at Work Act Breaches: Sections 2(1) & 3(1)
The largest fines of 2019 were handed to Valero Energy UK Ltd and B&A Contracts Ltd over an explosion at a Pembrokeshire oil refinery, leaving four workers dead and one critically harmed. The blast happened when they “were emptying a tank in the amine recovery unit using a vacuum tanker”, causing “ignition of a highly flammable atmosphere”.
The explosion was so severe it blew off the tank's five-tonne roof, launching it 55 metres through the air, narrowly missing a highly flammable pipe track, before hitting a butane storage sphere.
HSE investigators discovered the refinery's safety management systems had long-standing failures. As a result, “the risks posed by flammable atmospheres inside the amine recovery unit weren’t understood or controlled”.
For their failure to prevent this tragedy, Valero was fined £5 million (and £1 million in costs), while B&A Contracts was ordered to pay £120,000 (and £40,000 in costs).
Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 Section 3(1)
Following a fatal fire and gas explosion in Mirfield, authorities found Northern Gas Networks Ltd breached Health and Safety regulations and fined them £5 million. In addition, the gas operator was ordered to pay £91,487 in costs.
The HSE found the gas escape stemmed from a fractured cast iron main running under the carriageway to the front of the property. Homeowner Elena Frunza was found during the property search and taken to the hospital. She passed away the following day.
The main didn’t appear on Northern Gas Networks drawings, and therefore hadn’t been maintained in line with the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. The HSE concluded that they failed "to follow their safety procedures, in this case requiring the prompt and effective investigation and correction of anomalies in their records".
Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 Sections 2(1) and 3(1) and Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
After two incidents on the M6 motorway, when overhead cables fell into the path of passing vehicles, civil engineering company Kier was fined over £4 million.
Following an investigation, the HSE found the workers failed to inform the network provider after the first incident, when a raised loading bucket struck and severed an overhead power line. During the second, workers were unaware of overhead hazards, because a task-specific risk assessment hadn’t been made available.
Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 Sections 3 and 1
Thelargest health and safety fine in 2021 was handed to National Grid Gas plc. The offences arose from its failure to make records available for hundreds of properties, meaning routine safety inspections didn’t take place.
When National Grid Gas sold part of its operations to Cadent Gas in 2016, they didn’t transfer the records of many buildings. That meant condition surveys, inspections, and routine maintenance had been missing for years.
It highlighted that even if mistakes don’t lead to injuries, you can still be subject to hefty fines.
Section 2 (1) and two counts of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
The owners of Boulby Mine, a mining company, were fined £3.6 million after an HSE investigation revealed deficiencies in their risk assessment and planning of works processes.
Poor health and safety practices and safeguards led to the serious injury of two electrical contractors. One victim received severe burns when he "unknowingly placed a vacuum cleaner nozzle" into a live 11,000-volt electrical chamber in 2016. The second came into contact with a live conductor on a 415-volt electrical system in 2019.
Work at Height Regulations 2005 Regulation 6(3)
British Airways was fined over £3 million after two employees suffered serious injuries while working at Heathrow's Terminal 5. The incidents involved falls from height while unloading baggage via televators.
In August 2022, one employee slipped off an extended televator platform and fell about 1.5 metres, sustaining head and back injuries (including a fractured vertebra). In March 2023, another fell about three metres and suffered a fractured jaw and brain bleeding.
The HSE found guardrails had gaps between the platform and aircraft fuselage, which were exacerbated after platform extensions; flaps on the platforms were sometimes folded down, and operators hadn’t always fully extended the elevator platforms to close the gap.
"This was a reasonably foreseeable risk that British Airways should have been aware of and therefore it should have done more to protect its employees."
- Rebecca Schwartz, Enforcement lawyer, HSE
Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 Regulation 14
The National Grid was fined over £3 million following a severe workplace incident in South Wales that left a worker, Justin Hollins, with life-altering injuries. Hollins, a father of two, suffered a 33,000-volt electric shock while replacing step bolts on a pylon at Treforest Industrial Estate in Pontypridd on December 3rd, 2020.
A second company, 4 Power Ltd, also faced a fine (£80,000) for its role in the safety failures that led to the tragic incident.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 2(1)
A recycling company, Veolia ES (UK) Limited, was fined £3 million after a tragic accident during the decommissioning of a North Sea gas rig resulted in the death of one worker and serious injuries to another.
An HSE investigation found significant failures in Veolia's planning, risk assessment and supervision. They hadn’t assessed the risks properly, leading to inadequate safety measures. As a result, Veolia pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations and was fined.
"This incident, in an emerging industry, highlights the level of controls required to safely demolish what are large, dangerous structures. Veolia did not meet these standards and tragically one life was lost, and another forever changed."
- David King, HSE Inspector
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 3
The HSE fined Valencia Waste Management £3 million for the deaths of workers Michael Atkin and Mart Wheatley in separate incidents.
Wheatley died in 2020 while using a lorry to lift two skips simultaneously at Dartmoor National Park Conservation Works depot in Devon, but they overbalanced and struck him. Atkin lost his life in 2019 when waste paper bales fell off a lorry in Northamptonshire, crushing him.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 2(1), 3(1) and Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 regulation 38(2)
Industrial Chemicals Ltd was fined £2.5 million after two serious acid leaks at its West Thurrock site in Essex in 2020. The first incident involved the uncontrolled release of 300,000 litres of hydrochloric acid, forming a toxic gas cloud that forced local schools to close and residents to shelter indoors. The second saw 87 cubic metres of sulphuric acid escape due to cracked pipework and a malfunctioning valve, putting workers and drivers at risk.
“The uncontrolled release of significant quantities of hazardous substances in these cases was entirely avoidable.”
- Maria Strangward, HSE Principal Inspector
Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Biffa Waste Services Ltd was fined £2.48 million and ordered to pay court costs after a worker, James Tabiri, was killed at its waste transfer station in Bradford in 2023. Tabiri was struck from behind by a reversing skip wagon, fell to the ground and died from crush injuries.
"This incident was easily avoidable. Control measures were in place to allow pedestrians and vehicles to move safely, but a lack of monitoring and supervision allowed poor working practices to develop between the workers on site."
- Elliot Archer, HSE inspector
The company admitted breaching health and safety regulations by failing to adequately assess and control workplace transport risks.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 2(1)
Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd was fined £1.6 million following the tragic death of 24-year-old Jack Phillips. He was helping “while temporary mast climber work platform sections were lifted by a lorry-mounted crane,” when a load fell onto him.
“This tragic incident led to the wholly avoidable death of a young man. This death could so easily have been prevented if Jack’s employer had fulfilled its statutory duty to plan and manage the risks associated with lifting equipment and lifting operations."
- Ross Carter, HSE Principal Inspector
Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 & Work at Height Regulations 2005
Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd was found guilty of breaching numerous health and safety regulations when Electrician Keith Poppleton fatally fell eight metres from a crane's walkway after an access panel gave way beneath him.
"This was an incident that could easily have been prevented had the company considered the risks associated with such access panels."
- Jonathon Wills, HSE Inspector
Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 / 3 / 1
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) was fined £1.5 million for a litany of systematic health and safety failures that led to avoidable suicides.
There was "no doubt the failures to remove ligature points were a significant cause in the deaths of 11 people who died during the relevant time period and of a 12th person who died just after and a number of near misses".
- Judge Cavanagh
H&S at Work Act Breaches: Section 3(1)
The two companies were fined in January 2019 following the death of a child. The tragedy occurred when five-year-old Alexys Brown’s head became trapped at home by a lift for her disabled brother.
The HSE investigation noted critical failings by Synergy Housing Limited, the property owner, and Orona Limited, the company in charge of the lift's maintenance and repairs.
A systematic five-step process: identify hazards, evaluate risks, control them, record your findings, and regularly review and assess.
Employers are primarily responsible for managing workplace health and safety, but staff also have a duty to follow safety procedures, use equipment correctly and report risks.
1. Slips, trips and falls
2. Manual handling
3. Working at height
4. Moving vehicles and machinery
5. Hazardous substances
6. Fire and explosions
7. Electrical hazards
8. Noise and vibration
9. Poor ergonomics
10. Work-related stress
Hazards vary by workplace and activity type, so employers should conduct appropriate assessments to identify and control relevant risks to their staff.
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