Mike Penning has expressed his disappointment that the Attorney General is unable to review the sentences handed out to the companies responsible for the Buncefield disaster and refer to the Court of Appeal.

Mike had written to the Attorney General calling on him to review the case, however, in his reply the Attorney General said that the case could not be reviewed as it did not fall into the category of offences over which the Attorney General has the power to refer sentencing to the Court of Appeal.

In his letter the Attorney General, Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP, wrote:
“I understand that you are disappointed with the fines imposed, however the offences for which the fines were imposed (under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Water Resources Act 1991), are not offences within the unduly lenient scheme and there is therefore no possibility that I can seek to refer the sentences to the Court of Appeal for review.”

Mike said:
“I am very disappointed that these companies have been able to get away with such relatively small fines after causing over a billion pounds-worth of damage and such a huge amount of disruption to peoples lives. Many local people had their lives turned upside down as a result of the action of these companies. It cannot be right that the five companies involved – Total, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd, British Pipelines Agency, Motherwell Control Systems and TAV Engineering can get away with a total fine of £5.35 million.”

The companies were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive under the Health and Safety at Work Act and by the Environment Agency under the Water Resources Act. As a result, Total were fined £3.6million with £2.6million costs. Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited £1.45million with £1million costs, British Pipeline Agency Limited, £300,000 with £480,000 costs, Motherwell Control Systems £1,000 with £500 costs and TAV Engineering Limited also £1,000 with £500 costs.