Public Register of Health and Safety Enforcement Notices issued

The Council’s Health and Safety Inspectors may issue legal notices to companies and/or individuals for breaches of health and safety law within Plymouth. The notice may involve one or more instances when the person receiving the notice has failed to comply with the health and safety law.

Health and Safety Inspectors enforce health and safety standards by giving advice on how to comply with the law. Sometimes Inspectors must order people to make improvements to their safety practices by issuing them with a notice because they have failed to prevent risk of injury and/or ill- health to themselves, their employees or the public.

Type of notice

Improvement notice

An improvement notice allows enough time to comply with the requirements detailed on the notice.

Prohibition notice

A prohibition notice stops an activity immediately until action has been taken to remove the risk of serious personal injury or harm.

Inspectors follow the Council’s enforcement policy to decide the most appropriate action to take and if necessary may prosecute for non compliance with a notice.

Sector enforcement responsibilities

Councils generally enforce health and safety legislation in the following sectors:

• retail
• leisure
• warehousing
• hotel and residential care accommodation
• offices
• consumer service

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) generally cover:

• factories
• building sites
• mines
• farms
• fairgrounds
• quarries
• chemical plants
• offshore and nuclear installations
• schools
• hospitals
• other places where there is a work activity

For details of notices served by HSE Inspectors please visit the HSE website.

Notice information details

We must keep a public register of certain published notices which are served. We are not required to include notices which impose requirements or prohibitions solely for the protection of persons at work.

Any notices contained in the public register will be available for a period of three years from the date the notice was served. After three years, notices served on individuals or companies will be removed and kept in the Public Protection Department’s file register. The Council will ensure that notices which are withdrawn or subject to appeal are not included.

To account for the appeals process and quality assurance, the Council will allow nine weeks to elapse after a notice is issued before adding it to the register. Where the authority is notified of an appeal outside this time period, the notice will be removed until the appeal has been finished.

Specific details of notices served are available by contacting the Public Protection Service.

Please contact us if you have any queries.

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