Offences and penalties 2004/05 - Table 4 - HSE enforcement action against crown bodies: crown notices and censures

	Improvement Notices	Prohibition Notices	Total Notices	Censures
1998/99	13	1	14	4
1999/00	21	5	26	3
2000/01	11	0	11	2
2001/02	5	0	5	2
2002/03	14	2	16	2
2003/04	14	2	16	1
2004/05p	6	0	6	5

p = provisional

Crown bodies are bound by the requirements of health and safety legislation, but are not subject to statutory enforcement notices or prosecution (Crown immunity). Non-statutory procedures are in place for the issue of Crown improvement and prohibition notices, and for the censure of Crown bodies in circumstances in which a prosecution would otherwise have been brought.

Crown improvement notices and Crown prohibition notices (Notices that work should be stopped (risk of serious injury) for Crown employees) require the same action from Crown employers as do improvement and prohibition notices issued to other employers.

A Crown censure is the formal recording of a decision by HSE that, but for Crown immunity, the evidence of a Crown body’s failure to comply with health and safety law would have been sufficient to provide a realistic prospect of conviction in the courts, and prosecution would have been in the public interest.

A list of Crown bodies censured can be found on our Enforcement database