Penalties for workplace safety breaches: what the US, UK and Irish statutes and regulators say

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It reports penalty wording and amounts as the statute pages and regulator pages print them, with the date each page was read. It does not say what any person or firm will face. Australia and New Zealand rows are not on this page.

At a glance

Country	Law and enforcer	Maximum as the source words it
United States	Occupational Safety and Health Act, section 17. OSHA and State Plans	Civil: US$16,550 per violation (serious, other-than-serious, posting); US$165,514 per violation (willful or repeated). Criminal: wording in the Act
United Kingdom	Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 33 and Schedule 3A. HSE	On indictment: up to two years in prison, a fine, or both
Ireland	Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, sections 77 and 78. Health and Safety Authority	On indictment: a fine not exceeding €3,000,000, or up to 2 years in prison, or both

United States

OSHA's penalties page lists the maximum civil amounts "that may be assessed after Jan. 15, 2026." It prints US$16,550 per violation for serious and other-than-serious violations and for posting requirements. It prints US$16,550 per day beyond the abatement date for failure to abate, and US$165,514 per violation for willful or repeated violations. The same page says State Plan states must adopt maximum penalty levels "at least as effective" as federal OSHA, and that State Plans do not have to impose money penalties on state and local government employers.

OSHA's May 21, 2026 memo on 2026 civil penalties explains the year. It says there are no inflation-based increases to OSHA civil penalties for 2026, so the 2025 amounts remain in effect for 2026, because the Office of Management and Budget said the Bureau of Labor Statistics could not produce the October 2025 consumer price data needed. The memo also gives minimums: US$1,085 for serious violations (derived under OSHA penalty policy) and US$11,823 for willful violations (the minimum established by statute, as its footnote words it), and it says a failure-to-abate penalty is generally limited to 30 days maximum.

Section 17 of the Act is the base statute. The figures printed in the text are US$70,000 for a willful or repeated violation (not less than US$5,000 for a willful one) and US$7,000 for serious, other-than-serious, posting and each day of failure to abate. OSHA's penalties page describes its higher amounts as adjusted for inflation. For a willful violation that caused the death of an employee, section 17 says conviction brings a fine of not more than US$10,000 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both, and for a second conviction not more than US$20,000 or one year, or both. OSHA's page of the Act adds a note that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 raises maximum criminal fines.

United Kingdom

Section 33 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 lists the offences, and the legislation.gov.uk text says up to date to October 9, 2026. They include failing to discharge a duty under sections 2 to 7, contravening health and safety regulations, and failing to follow an improvement or prohibition notice. Section 33(2) points to Schedule 3A for the mode of trial and the maximum penalty.

Schedule 3A sets, for a failure to discharge a duty under sections 2 to 6, trial summarily or on indictment. On indictment it gives imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both. On summary conviction the table shows imprisonment up to the general limit in a magistrates' court, or a fine, or both. The table keeps the earlier wording, a fine not exceeding £20,000, marked as replaced for England and Wales from March 12, 2015 by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Fines on Summary Conviction) Regulations 2015. Offences against section 33(1)(d) and (n) are summary only, with a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

HSE also charges for its time. Its page on fee for intervention says it charges when it finds a business in material breach of health and safety law, and describes a material breach as something an inspector considers serious enough to need formal written action. That page, updated March 30, 2026, sends the hourly cost to HSE's cost recovery rates and prints no pound figure itself.

Ireland

The Law Reform Commission's revised Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, updated to April 9, 2026, puts offences in section 77 and penalties in section 78. Section 77(1) offences, such as failing to implement an improvement plan whose adequacy has been confirmed, carry on summary conviction a fine not exceeding €5,000. Section 77(2) offences, which include failing to discharge a duty under sections 8, 9, 10, 11(1) to (4), 12, 13 and 15 to 23, carry on summary conviction a fine not exceeding €5,000 or up to 12 months in prison or both. On indictment the Act says a fine not exceeding €3,000,000 or up to 2 years in prison or both. Section 78(4) says a convicted person must pay the Authority's investigation and prosecution costs unless the court sees special and substantial reasons not to order it.

Where each regulator publishes outcomes

The site has separate pages that list published outcomes: prosecutions in the United Kingdom and prosecutions in Ireland. For OSHA's state-run programmes, see the page on OSHA State Plans and tree work.