Health and Safety

No organisation should wait until things go wrong to manage its risks. Our health and safety team takes a proactive approach when advising clients in building strong foundations in compliance, strategy, policies and risk exposure.

We provide bespoke regulatory advice to corporates, large national and multinational organisations, and senior individuals across a range of industry sectors including advanced manufacturing, energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, real estate, retail & consumer and transport.

We are adept at guiding clients through the regulatory landscape within a wide range of contexts, including health & safety, corporate manslaughter, consumer protection, food safety and hygiene, fire safety , product liability and safety, corporate and directors' duties and a wide range of other criminal regulatory matters. We also advise in relation to the health and safety obligations arising as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our practice also includes extensive experience advising and representing corporate clients at inquests in the Coroner's Court arising from work-related and other fatalities, and Public Inquiries set up by the Government to investigate matters of public concern.

When things do go wrong, we are on hand 24/7 to provide our clients with crisis support when faced with major incidents, investigations and enforcement action taken by regulatory authorities, including the Police, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Local Authority, Trading Standards, Care Quality Commission (CQC) Fire & Rescue Service, Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Office of Rail and Road (ORR) other regulatory enforcement bodies.

Expertise

AG advises on a range of regulatory matters, including:

Health & safety
Corporate manslaughter
Regulatory investigations
Product safety
Trading standards
Food safety
Fire safety
Traffic and motoring offences
Witness preparation training - on the back of our trial performance, we have worked closely with clients on witness familiarisation training ready for significant High Court cases and international arbitrations

Clients and experience

We have substantial experience in contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters.

Until recently we regularly acted for the HSE in a range of matters, leading to prosecutions being brought against third parties in the Crown Court and magistrates' courts. We now solely act for the firm's corporate clients and for individuals on the receiving end of such prosecutions. We have particular experience of dealing with very serious and fatal accidents. Such cases often involve representing our clients in the Coroners' Court.

We also act for and advise the firm's clients facing prosecution or investigation by other regulatory bodies, including Trading Standards, local authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority. Many of these matters involve reputation management issues.

In addition, we provide clients with training for their board of directors, senior managers and employees. For example, we have recently provided training for a number of clients in relation to crisis management, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, directors' duties, as well as the new sentencing scheme on the horizon for health & safety matters.

Our clients include:

Royal Mail Group
Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd
Speedy Hire plc
Hill and Smith Holdings plc and its subsidiaries
Semperian PPP Investment Partners
Northern Lifecare trading as ubu

Testimonials

"Addleshaw Goddard attracts a very high calibre of clients. The team has a strong depth of experience in doing this work." - Chambers & Partners 2025
"We received excellent service from the team. They communicated very clearly with us on matters we had no experience of and we felt supported through an extremely difficult period for our business." - Legal 500 2025
"This team has great insight into the inner workings of public inquiries, meaning that they can offer valuable advice to their clients and the appropriate steps to take at any given stage. Their contacts are especially useful at both the solicitor and barrister level." - Legal 500 2025
"One of the very best teams around. Led by the brilliant Erin Shoesmith, the practice goes from strength to strength. The team love working for Erin. She gets the best out of them. Clients have complete confidence in them." - Legal 500 2025
"Unrivalled insight into commercial realities, coupled with fantastic work rate and unerring instinct for the best possible outcome makes this team the best." - Legal 500 2025
"Very responsive and excellent technical knowledge." - Legal 500 2025
"Unrivalled insight into commercial realities and unerring instinct for the best possible outcome makes this team the best by a considerable margin." - Legal 500 2025