Balfour Beatty fine

Prosecutions and Claims |
01.08.2006

The Court of Appeal has cut from £10 million to £7.5 million Balfour Beatty's fine for health and safety breaches that contributed to the Hatfield rail crash. Lawyers acting for the company had argued that the original fine was "excessive" (HSW June, page 2). Three Court of Appeal judges ruled that the disparity between Balfour Beatty's original penalty and Network Rail's £3.5 million fine was grounds for a reduction "in the interests of proportionality". Following the ruling, the Office of Rail Regulation published the Independent Investigation Board's final report on the crash, which is critical of both Balfour Beatty and Railtrack. The report is available at www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/297.pdf