Health & Safety at Work Act 1974
COSHH Regulations 2002

Exposure to Legionella is covered by both these laws and as such if you do not prevent exposure you will be prosecuted under these laws. A person does not necessarily need to contract Legionnaire's Disease for you to be prosecuted, it is enough to show failure to prevent exposure.

It is therefore vital that you determine what the risks of exposure are and how these risks can be reduced or prevented. A high quality legionella risk assessment will do this and will provide a full management program to ensure you can comply with the law.

Failure to compy with the law can lead to prosecution and heavy fines.

Legionella Cases

There have recently been a number of high profile cases concerning Legionella. These outbreaks or discovery of Legionella have resulted in prosecution and fines for the companies involved.

It is worth bearing in mind that the fines are relatively small when you consider the cost of defending a case of Legionnaire's disease and such things as production loss, reputation etc. The first defence against any potential legal action by HSE is a high quality risk assessment. With a poor quality risk assessment, or no risk assessment, it is impossible to effectively control the risks and as such you leave yourselves exposed to prosecution.