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HSE Construction Fines 2024-2025: What Went Wrong

Last reviewed: 26 February 2026

Between 2024 and 2025, the Health and Safety Executive handed out several fines exceeding £1 million — all linked to inadequate risk management. Construction remains the industry with the highest rate of fatal injuries in Britain, and HSE's enforcement approach reflects that. Whether you run a firm or you're a sole trader with a van, the pattern in these prosecutions is worth understanding.

Construction fatalities and HSE enforcement

Construction accounted for 51 fatal injuries to workers in 2023/24, up from 47 the previous year. That makes it the sector with the most workplace deaths in Britain — 37% of all work-related fatalities — as it has been for decades. Falls from height remain the single biggest killer, responsible for over half of construction deaths.

In 2023/24, HSE completed 248 criminal prosecutions across all sectors with a 92% conviction rate. The regulator also issued over 7,000 enforcement notices, including approximately 1,800 prohibition notices that stopped dangerous work immediately. The average fine per offence has risen sharply since the Sentencing Council guidelines came into effect in February 2016. Before those guidelines, average fines sat around £20,000–£50,000. Seven-figure fines are now routine for larger organisations.

Source: HSE Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24, HSE Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain 2024

High-profile cases: 2024–2025

Veolia ES (UK) Ltd — £3 million (July 2024)

In October 2019, two demolition operatives were dismantling a decommissioned North Sea gas rig at an onshore facility in Great Yarmouth. A 27-tonne piece of overhanging metal pipework — known as a skirt pile — gave way and struck the mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) they were working from. Both workers fell 12 metres to the ground. Stephen Picken, 62, died at the scene. His colleague Mark Kumar suffered life-changing injuries.

HSE's investigation found that Veolia ES (UK) Limited had not risk-assessed the removal of the skirt pile because it considered the task low risk. There was no cutting plan and no safe system of work in place. Supervision and monitoring at the site were inconsistent.

At Ipswich Crown Court on 22 July 2024, Veolia pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £3 million plus £60,000 in costs — the largest single HSE fine of 2024.

Openreach Ltd — £1.34 million (June 2024)

In October 2020, Openreach engineer Alun Owen, 32, from Bethesda in Gwynedd, was attempting to repair telephone lines running across the River Aber in Abergwyngregyn. The river had burst its banks after heavy rain and was flowing much higher and faster than normal. Owen waded into the water to reach an island in the centre of the river, attempting to throw a new cable across by taping it to a hammer. While crossing a deeper section, he slipped and was swept away by the current.

HSE and North Wales Police found that Openreach had no safe system of work in place for work on or near water. Owen and other engineers working at the same location had received no training, information, or instruction on safe working near water.

At Llandudno Magistrates' Court on 5 June 2024, BT Openreach Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £1.34 million plus £15,858 in costs.

Cambridgeshire County Council — £6 million (April 2025)

Cambridgeshire County Council's Guided Busway opened in 2011. Over the following decade, three people died and multiple others suffered serious injuries in separate incidents at the facility:

  • Jennifer Taylor, 81, died at an unlit crossing in November 2015
  • Steve Moir, 50, was killed when his bicycle struck a kerb and he fell into the path of a bus
  • Kathleen Pitts, 52, lost her life in October 2021

The council did not carry out a risk assessment of the busway until August 2016 — five years after it opened and months after the first death. Even then, the assessment covered only one location and did not examine other areas of the busway system. HSE issued two improvement notices during this period, but the council appealed the enforcement action rather than acting on the concerns.

At Cambridge Crown Court on 16 April 2025, the council pleaded guilty to two offences under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £6 million plus £292,460 in costs — the largest HSE fine of 2025.

The common thread: risk assessments that don't do the job

Every case above centres on risk assessments that were either missing, delayed, or disconnected from the actual work:

  • Veolia didn't assess a task because they assumed it was low-risk — the assumption killed a man
  • Openreach had no safe working procedures for an entire category of work (near water)
  • Cambridgeshire delayed assessing known risks for five years, during which three people died

HSE inspectors are not looking for perfect documents. They want evidence that you identified hazards specific to your site, assessed who could be harmed, and put control measures in place that match the work. A proper risk assessment is not a compliance exercise — it is the thing that stops someone getting hurt.

Generic templates downloaded from the internet and edited with a new company name are exactly what falls apart under scrutiny. HSE's published enforcement cases repeatedly reference "generic" assessments as a factor in prosecution decisions.

How HSE calculates fines

The Sentencing Council's definitive guideline for health and safety offences (February 2016) sets the framework courts use:

  1. Offence category. The court assesses culpability (how far the defendant fell below the standard) and harm (seriousness and likelihood). Harm categories range from 1 (most serious) to 4. Culpability ranges from low to very high.

  2. Starting point by turnover. Guidelines set starting points for micro organisations (under £2M turnover), small (£2M–£10M), medium (£10M–£50M), and large (over £50M). For a large organisation with very high culpability at harm category 1, the starting point is £4 million with a range of £2.6 million to £10 million. For a micro organisation at the same level, the starting point is £250,000.

  3. Aggravating and mitigating factors. Previous convictions and cost-cutting push fines up. Early guilty pleas (up to one-third discount) and genuine remedial steps bring them down.

  4. Proportionality check. The fine must be proportionate to the organisation's means, but "sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact."

A sole trader with £100K turnover faces a different starting point than a PLC with £500M turnover — but the proportional impact can be devastating either way. You can estimate your exposure using our HSE fine calculator.

What small firms and sole traders need to know

There is a persistent myth that HSE only goes after large companies. The enforcement data says otherwise. HSE prosecutes small builders, sole-trader electricians, and one-person roofing firms. The Sentencing Council guidelines set fines relative to turnover, so even a micro organisation (under £2M turnover) faces starting points ranging from £1,400 at the lowest category up to £250,000 at the most serious. For a sole trader earning £40K–£60K, even a lower-category fine of several thousand pounds plus costs is a serious blow.

HSE tends to investigate construction firms after:

  • A reportable incident. Someone is injured, a RIDDOR report is filed, and HSE finds the risk assessment was missing or inadequate.
  • A complaint. Workers or members of the public report concerns. Inspectors follow up.
  • A proactive inspection. HSE runs targeted campaigns focused on specific hazards — working at height, asbestos, demolition. If your RAMS are not in order when inspectors arrive, you have a problem.
  • Fee for Intervention (FFI). HSE charges £183 per hour (as of April 2025) for time spent on material breaches. This is not a fine — it is an invoice, and it arrives before any prosecution decision.

The threshold for enforcement is not size. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer and every self-employed person whose work could affect others must carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. No exceptions.

How to protect yourself

  1. Make risk assessments site-specific. Each site has different hazards. Your assessment needs to reflect the actual conditions, not a generic template.

  2. Do the assessment before work starts. The Cambridgeshire case shows timing matters. A risk assessment completed after an incident is evidence against you — and five years of delay cost three lives.

  3. Don't assume any task is low-risk. Veolia skipped a risk assessment because they considered a 27-tonne piece of pipework "low risk." That assumption was fatal.

  4. Cover every category of work. Openreach had no procedure for an entire type of work activity (near water). If your workers encounter conditions outside your standard scope, you need a system for that.

  5. Keep records. If HSE investigates, you need to show what you assessed, when, and what you did about it.

  6. Understand your fine exposure. The HSE fine calculator gives you a rough indication based on your organisation size and offence category.

  7. Do not treat RAMS as a tick-box exercise. Copying and pasting without thinking is exactly what leads to the failures described in every case above.

The bottom line

HSE construction fines in 2024–2025 show a regulator that actively enforces, targets inadequate risk assessments specifically, and produces fines that genuinely hurt. The pattern in every major prosecution is the same: the risk assessment was either missing, delayed, or did not match the work.

For sole traders and small firms, the fix is straightforward but time-consuming — site-specific risk assessments for every project, before work starts, updated as conditions change. That is exactly the problem TradeRAMS is built to solve: generating RAMS that reflect your actual site, trade, and hazards, in minutes rather than hours. If that sounds useful, join the TradeRAMS waitlist for early access when we launch.

Sources: HSE Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24, HSE Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain 2024, Sentencing Council definitive guideline for health and safety offences (2016), HSE Press Office — Veolia prosecution, IOSH Magazine — Openreach prosecution, HSE Press Office — Cambridgeshire County Council.