The steps you take in the hours and days that follow a serious health & safety incident are critically important, yet also exceptionally difficult to manage.

There are a number of essentials such as good co-operation with the authorities, support for workers and clear communication. However, all too often we see the same mistakes being made that can create unnecessary legal and reputational risks for the organisation and the individuals within it.

Knowing what to do in those early stages helps you to make better, informed decisions, which can have a lasting impact in health & safety cases. The wrong decisions can affect the direction of the investigation and can increase the potential for enforcement action.

Our Mock Investigation Event is a practical session centered around an evolving scenario.

Step by step we take you through an investigation that has not gone well, and we show you why so many problems occurred and how they could have been avoided.

The Judges Summing Up – An incident has occurred in your premises and unfortunately a worker has died. The company and a director have been prosecuted. We take ourselves to Court and listen to the Judge’s comments about this case.
Offences for companies and individuals – We consider what offences may apply in this case, who might be at risk and what the fines may be.
The immediate aftermath – We go right back to the day of the incident and look at how the investigation unfolded.
Police and HSE Powers – We consider how to deal with requests for information from the Police and HSE.
Witness Interviews – What do you need to consider when witnesses are interviewed?
Legal Privilege – How to protect your investigation report and investigation documents and what to do when people ask to see your investigation report.
Communications – The press, what do you do when they ask questions and how does this impact your other communications.
Employees – Whilst this could be the subject of another half-day session, we discuss some of the key points you need to consider if a worker has not followed company procedures.
The Penalty – We look at potential penalties in our case and the key factors from the sentencing guideline. We consider how things would have been different if the investigation had been handled better.

You will have the opportunity to consider how you would deal with the various stages of the investigation, and we provide you with practical tools to help you make the right decisions as issues arise.

This half day event is essential for:

Those required to make decisions, or oversee investigations, following serious incidents.
Managers, supervisors and team leaders – those who may be first at the scene.
Those responsible for ensuring compliance on a daily basis, to generate behavioural change. It helps for teams to see that, by not getting the H&S basics right, e.g. failing to document checks, a prosecution can be difficult to defend.

CECA NE Mock Investigation