Ofwat (water regulator) head Regina Finn was on the radio just now explaining why she had fined SevernTrent water £38.5 million for misreporting its customer service ratings.
Finn said the penalty is 3% of Severn Trent's annual turnover and that it is "proportionate and appropriate" and will act as "a deterrent to this kind of behaviour".
The Sentencing Guidelines Council has been consulting since November on new guidelines for judges setting fines for corporate manslaughter convictions and prosecutions for fatalities under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Their draft recommended fines of between 2.5% and 7.5% of a company's annual turnover for HSW Act convictions, but there has been speculation that these percentages might be reduced to less punitive levels.
Now we know the order of magnitude of the offence of fibbing to a regulator about your customer satisfaction levels is a 3% penalty, let's hope the final advice on what it should cost a business to neglect employees' safety to the point of fatality doesn't set the bar any lower.
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