Every occupation has a multitude of policies that everyone no matter their role must follow. Policies relating to health and safety are some of the main policies which people must follow. However, sometimes things go wrong, and policies may be flouted or even not accounted for at all. This is where consequences come in. Consequences for not taking into account for health and safety can come in various ways, these can include negative public opinion media grilling, fines, lack of sales, reduced profits, possible prison sentence, and so on. Obviously, some consequences are much worse than others, but all will have a negative impact on the occupation in some way. Keeping a good image and good working environment is vital for every business. Failure to do so is one step closure to failure.

In any health and safety situation, injury or even death can occur. If this is to happen, consequences may follow through court cases. These include civil cases and sometimes even criminal cases. The majority of civil cases can settled outside of court in a private case otherwise known as mediation. There are many reasons why this is the case. The main reason is down to time. Cases can be lengthy especially if they go to court. The prosecution system and lawyers need to build their case before presenting it to the court which can take a while. There is also pressure on the court at all times to decide which cases are dealt with and when. Finding the appropriate slot can also make proceedings more time consuming. Therefore, most cases are advised and most do get settled outside of court. Costs also are a  reason for cases being settled outside of court since the longer the case goes on for, the more expensive it'll get for all involved.

If nothing is settled in the initial preceding, then it may in front of a judge. The case becomes public if this is the case. Throughout it will be determined whether the initial claim is viable, if the defending party is to blame and whether the losing party will pay the damages either as a percentage of the asking claim or the full amount. The only power that civil judges have is to award damages to the claimant. The judge is the primary investigator and does not have a jury to conform to in civil cases. It's up to the lawyers of both parties to provide a convincing argument for the judge to have their final say.

If it’s believed that the cause of injury and death is more significant and therefore requires further consequences such as possible imprisonment, the claims could go to criminal court. Again, this is for the most severe of cases. Criminal cases are public and will have a jury during the proceedings unlike in civil cases. As well as that the judge has more power within the court such as the severity of the punishments that they hand out. Criminal cases can lead to large fines if the business is found liable for severe injury or death. If a specific person/s are found liable they too may find themselves facing severe consequences. Those found guilty within a criminal case will receive a criminal record no matter the further punishment they may receive. Criminal cases can be life altering for all involved.

Sometimes things can go wrong even with the best injuries which could still lead to major consequences. In a civil case, a court will consider whether there was any effort of due care leading to the event of the claim such as an injury. The defendants may still be required to pay damages however the full amount wanted to be claimed may not be rewarded to the claimant. If the fault is deemed to be down to more of a technical failure (that had been through adequate checks) then damages may be lessened or perhaps not even rewarded at all. Occupational failures where procedures haven’t been properly enforced or even put in place at all are more likely to lead to the consequences being more severe whether that’s full damages in a civil case or a case being taken to criminal court. This is especially in cases where the court may feel health and safety in certain instances have been outright neglected. It is up to the occupation to make sure safety is monitored and maintained (managed) to make sure there is no risk of it being done for neglect of health and safety,

Finally, the main consequence that an occupation can suffer from if health and safety is either flouted or neglected is worker morale. If a health and safety issue within the occupation has had to go to court even if is settled it could still become an issue amongst the rest of the workers within said occupation. They may feel that there still hasn’t been enough to deal with health and safety issues, morale could drop drastically and attitudes amongst workers could become toxic. This too could affect the image of the occupation leading to not only loss of profits, sales and leads. More importantly, this could lead also to loss of workers who will feel obliged to leave an unsafe and toxic working environment. If this is to happen, it could be difficult to regain workers if the poor image is spread.