Curated from HSE and local authority enforcement records
Every tracked case
Filter by sector or search by name. Each case links to its primary source. Figures are the fines as reported; where a fine was reduced on appeal, the final figure is shown.
| Defendant | Year | Sector | Fine | Prosecutor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Sanctuary Housing Association In 2018 every water sample at a Birkenhead sheltered-housing scheme tested positive for legionella. The water system was poorly managed, staff were inadequately trained, and residents were wrongly told the water could be boiled and used. Vulnerable residents were evacuated; no one fell ill. Source · Read the case study →
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2024 | Housing | £900k | HSE |
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Amey Community Limited Death/outbreak Facilities manager at HMP Lincoln, where a 71-year-old prisoner died of Legionnaires' disease in 2017. The firm had failed to act on a 2016 risk assessment, had no written control scheme, and did not monitor water temperatures. Source · Read the case study →
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2024 | Facilities management | £600k | HSE |
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Riaar Plastics Limited Five people, including members of the public, contracted Legionnaires' disease near a West Bromwich plastics factory in 2020, one needing intensive care. The site's cooling towers were in extremely poor condition. Source · Read the case study →
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2023 | Manufacturing | £50k | HSE |
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Sentinel Health Care Limited Death/outbreak A 56-year-old resident died of Legionnaires' disease contracted at a Hampshire care home in 2020. In the CQC's first legionella prosecution, the company admitted failing to provide safe care and treatment. Source
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2020 | Care home | £150k | Care Quality Commission |
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Isher Hangers (K & S Chatha) The owners of a Birmingham hanger manufacturer failed to control legionella from a cooling tower, ignoring their own consultants' warnings and having no risk assessment, on a site near two hospitals. Each received a 12-week sentence suspended for 12 months, a rare custodial legionella outcome. Source
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2020 | Manufacturing | n/a | HSE |
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Bupa Care Homes (BNH) Limited Death/outbreak An 86-year-old resident died of Legionnaires' disease at a Brentwood care home in 2015, months after refurbishment. The company failed to flush and disinfect the system, the manager lacked training, warnings were ignored and records were falsified. Fined £3m, reduced to £1.5m by the Court of Appeal. Source · Read the case study →
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2018 | Care home | £1.5m | HSE |
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Faltec Europe Limited Legionella grew to potentially lethal levels in recirculating cooling water at a car-parts factory in 2014 to 2015; five people including a local resident contracted the disease. The HSE had repeatedly warned of dead legs and damaged drift eliminators. Source
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2018 | Manufacturing | £800k | HSE |
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Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust Death/outbreak A cancer patient died in 2015 after exposure to legionella in a hospital ward annex. A separate water loop feeding the annex, opened in 2009, had never been temperature-checked or tested. The strain was not matched to the system, so the charge was exposing patients to risk. Source · Read the case study →
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2018 | Healthcare | £300k | HSE |
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Tendring District Council A member of the public contracted Legionnaires' disease from the water system at the council-run Walton-on-the-Naze leisure centre. HSE found inadequate risk assessments, insufficient staff training and a lack of monitoring across several council leisure sites. Fined £27,000 plus £7,197 costs and a £170 victim surcharge at Colchester Magistrates' Court in December 2018. Source · Read the case study →
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2018 | Local authority leisure | £27k | HSE |
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JTF Wholesale Limited Death/outbreak A heated spa pool displayed for sale for months at a Stoke-on-Trent warehouse store caused a 2012 outbreak: 21 people fell ill and three died. The HSE considered corporate manslaughter before accepting a guilty plea to failing to risk-assess and maintain the hot tub. Source · Read the case study →
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2017 | Retail | £1m | HSE |
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G4S Cash Solutions (UK) Limited Environmental health officers inspecting a Harlow cash depot found erratic monitoring, untrained staff and no adequate water-system risk assessment. Legionella was not confirmed on site but workers were exposed to risk. One of the largest legionella fines, brought by a local authority. Source · Read the case study →
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2016 | Security | £1.8m | Harlow Council |
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Four Seasons Health Care Limited Death/outbreak A 90-year-old resident died of Legionnaires' disease at a Kirkby-in-Ashfield care home in 2012 after the company failed to properly manage legionella in the water system. Prosecuted by the local authority. Source
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2016 | Care home | £600k | Ashfield District Council |
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Reading Borough Council Death/outbreak A 95-year-old resident died in 2012 of legionella pneumonia at a council-run intermediate-care home, where the strain in his room's washbasin tap matched his infection. Monitoring and flushing had been left to an inadequately trained handyman with no cover. Source
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2016 | Care home | £100k | HSE |
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BDL Select Operations Ltd Operator of the then-Landmark Hotel in Dundee. A Pontiac fever outbreak from the leisure-club spa pool left 65 people ill (18 confirmed). The spa pool had not been fully drained, cleaned or disinfected for over two months, filter backwashing was neglected, and a failed chlorine injector let bacteria breed. Pleaded guilty on indictment to two HSWA charges and was fined £54,000 at Dundee Sheriff Court in January 2016. No deaths. Prosecuted by COPFS in Scotland. Source · Read the case study →
|
2016 | Hospitality | £54k | COPFS |
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St Christopher's Hospice Death/outbreak The Sydenham hospice failed to appoint a competent person to control legionella in its hot and cold water system. A patient died of Legionnaires' disease in August 2012 and an orderly later spent 18 days in a coma. Convicted at Southwark Crown Court in 2016 of breaching HSWA ss.2 and 3; sentenced to a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £25,000 in costs. No fine was imposed. Recorded as a prosecution with a death rather than a fine. Source
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2016 | Healthcare | n/a | HSE |
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Chromalloy UK Limited An engineering firm ran corroded, poorly treated cooling towers at two sites; a 2012 sample showed legionella so high that immediate cleaning was required, and an HSE inspector was sprayed with aerosol on site. Source
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2015 | Manufacturing | £110k | HSE |
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Coilcolor Limited A Newport steel-coating firm ran two cooling towers from 2009 with no risk assessment, no written scheme, no water-treatment programme and missing drift eliminators, exposing staff and the public to aerosol. The HSE served prohibition notices stopping the towers being used. Source
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2015 | Manufacturing | £75k | HSE |
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Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust Death/outbreak The Trust, which ran the Royal Sussex County Hospital, failed to adequately act on 114 positive legionella tests and 651 out-of-range water-temperature records between October 2010 and November 2011; chlorine dioxide dosing at five sites routinely under-delivered. The case followed the death of cancer patient Joan Rayment, 78, in November 2011. Pleaded guilty to breaching HSWA s3(1) and was fined £50,000 plus £38,705.60 costs at Lewes Crown Court in June 2015. A joint HSE and Sussex Police investigation. Source
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2015 | Healthcare | £50k | HSE |
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Pride Cleaners (2000) Limited A Stourbridge dry-cleaning firm could not show how it was managing a cooling tower integral to its process, having dropped its water-treatment consultant without alternative controls, creating a legionella risk to workers and the public. The company, which had ceased trading, pleaded guilty to breaching HSWA ss.2(1) and 3(1) at Birmingham Magistrates' Court in August 2014 and was fined a nominal £100 plus £50 costs. Source · Read the case study →
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2014 | Dry cleaning | £100 | HSE |
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Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Death/outbreak A chronic legionella outbreak in the hospital water system in 2006 to 2007 infected seven patients; two died (James Compton, 74, and Raymond Cackett, 54). Shower heads, hoses and thermostatic controls were not maintained. The Trust admitted breaching HSWA s3(1) and was fined £100,000 for the legionella offence plus about £162,000 costs at Chelmsford Crown Court in September 2013. A larger reported total from the same hearing reflected a separate, unrelated incident. Source
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2013 | Healthcare | £100k | HSE |
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Lanarkshire Health Board (NHS Lanarkshire) A 64-year-old patient at Hartwoodhill Hospital contracted Legionnaires' disease in November 2008. HSE found legionella in three water sources, two (including the shower the patient used daily) matching her strain, and established that no suitable legionella risk assessment or control scheme was in place. The patient survived. Fined £24,000 under HSWA s3(1) at Hamilton Sheriff Court in January 2012. Scottish prosecution (COPFS, HSE investigation). Source
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2012 | Healthcare | £24k | COPFS |
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Mother Redcaps Care Home A Wallasey care home had no system to manage its hot and cold water and failed to comply with an HSE improvement notice despite two extensions, putting elderly residents at risk. Source
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2012 | Care home | £7k | HSE |
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Pontin's Limited (in administration) Death/outbreak Guests contracted Legionnaires' disease from a contaminated water storage tank feeding a chalet at the Lytham St Annes holiday camp, and a guest died. The company's own temperature records showed water held below recommended levels, and warnings were not acted upon. Convicted at Preston Crown Court in 2012 of breaching HSWA ss.2(1) and 3(1). Because the firm was in administration, a nominal £1,000 fine plus £10,000 costs was imposed; the judge said a fine near £500,000 would otherwise have applied. (Sources differ on whether HSE or the local authority led the prosecution.) Source
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2012 | Hospitality | £1k | HSE |
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Piperdam Golf & Leisure Resort Limited Death/outbreak Guest Edward Warnes, 60, died after contracting Legionnaires' disease from a hot tub and shower heads in a lodge at the Piperdam golf and leisure resort near Dundee in 2008. Control measures were inadequate and no suitable risk assessment had been carried out. The operating company (registered as Piperdam Golf & Leisure Resort Limited, Companies House SC150138) pleaded guilty at Forfar Sheriff Court in March 2011 to breaching HSWA ss.3(1) and 33(1) and was fined £120,000, reduced from £150,000 for the early plea. Prosecuted by COPFS following an Angus Council investigation. Source · Read the case study →
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2011 | Hospitality | £120k | COPFS |
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Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospitals NHS Trust High legionella levels were found in the Audrey Leigh wing in May 2002, but the Trust stopped testing, assigned no one responsibility for managing the bacteria, and had no suitable control measures. Two patients died of Legionnaires' disease in early 2007, but HSE could not conclusively link those infections to the hospital, so the conviction is for the safety-management failing rather than for causing death. Pleaded guilty and was fined nearly £48,000 at Liverpool Magistrates' Court in 2009. Source
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2009 | Healthcare | £48k | HSE |
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DEBA UK Ltd A risk-assessment contractor (not the care-home operator) carried out inadequate legionella risk assessments in 2007 that wrongly rated two Craegmoor Healthcare nursing homes in Wales as low risk, where controls were in fact inadequate. No outbreak or death resulted. Pleaded guilty to three charges under HSWA s3(1) and was fined £24,000 plus £17,276 costs at Abertillery Magistrates' Court in August 2009. Notable as a prosecution of the assessor rather than the duty-holder. Source · Read the case study →
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2009 | Water treatment | £24k | HSE |
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Barrow Borough Council Death/outbreak The August 2002 Barrow-in-Furness outbreak killed seven people and made around 180 ill, the source being a poorly maintained air-conditioning cooling system at the council-run Forum 28 arts centre. The council was convicted of breaching HSWA s3(1) and fined £125,000 plus £90,000 costs in July 2006. It was the first UK public body to face corporate manslaughter charges, which were dropped before the HSWA conviction. A named council employee was separately prosecuted as an individual and is not recorded here. Source · Read the case study →
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2006 | Local authority leisure | £125k | HSE |
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Copthorne Hotel Cardiff (Millennium & Copthorne Hotels) Death/outbreak A Legionnaires' disease outbreak from July 1999 to February 2000 was traced to an incorrectly installed humidifier in a buffet unit. Two guests died and five others fell ill. The hotel pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court in November 2005 to two breaches of the HSWA 1974 and was fined £40,000 plus £15,000 costs. A named health-and-safety consultant was separately prosecuted as an individual and is not recorded here. Source
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2005 | Hospitality | £40k | HSE |
No cases match that filter.
What the courts have handed down
Total legionella-related fines in the tracked cases, by year. Individual years swing sharply because a single outbreak prosecution can dwarf a normal year.
Which sectors are prosecuted
The tracked prosecutions grouped by the kind of duty holder, ordered by total fines. A single outbreak can lift a sector sharply, so read the case count next to the total rather than the total alone.
| Sector | Prosecutions | Total fines | Involving a death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Care home | 5 | £2.36m | 4 |
| Security | 1 | £1.8m | – |
| Manufacturing | 5 | £1.04m | – |
| Retail | 1 | £1m | 1 |
| Housing | 1 | £900k | – |
| Facilities management | 1 | £600k | 1 |
| Healthcare | 6 | £522k | 4 |
| Hospitality | 4 | £215k | 3 |
| Local authority leisure | 2 | £152k | 1 |
| Water treatment | 1 | £24k | – |
| Dry cleaning | 1 | £100 | – |
Fines are the total across all tracked prosecutions in each sector, 2005 onwards. Cases with no fine (for example a conditional discharge) are counted as prosecutions but add nothing to the fines column.
Sectors without prosecutions
Some sectors carry a clear legionella duty yet have no case in this record: as of August 2026 we have found no UK legionella prosecution of a school, a dental practice or a private residential landlord in HSE conviction records or in press reporting. That is a statement about how enforcement has happened, not about the duty — the obligation to assess and control the risk is exactly the same in those settings, and review of the assessment is required on the same terms, whether or not a court case exists. If a prosecution in one of these sectors is confirmed against a primary source, it will be added here.
Free legionella risk assessment template
A structured Word document following the five-step approach in ACOP L8. Covers risk identification, written scheme, monitoring, and records. If it isn't written down, you can't evidence it.
Follows ACoP L8 and HSG274 Part 2. Free. No spam.
The failings that end in court
The same handful of failings recur across these cases: no legionella risk assessment at all, or one that was never acted on; no written scheme of control and no monitoring records; temperatures left uncontrolled; and warnings or previous advice ignored. In the most serious cases those failings led to an outbreak and a death. The common thread is not bad luck. It is the absence of the basic, documented management that the law has required for years.
The practical lesson for a duty holder is that the paperwork is the defence. A prosecution turns on whether you assessed the risk, put controls in place, and can evidence that you followed them. That is exactly what a risk assessment, a written scheme of control, and a log book are for. If you are not sure where you stand, the Risk Assessment Builder is the quickest way to see what your system needs.
How this dataset is built, and what it leaves out
We would rather show our working than claim to be complete. This is how cases get in, the rules we hold ourselves to, and the gaps we know about.
How cases are found
This is a curated record, not an automated feed. The HSE public registers of convictions and enforcement notices carry no free-text "legionella" search and publish no bulk download (checked July 2026). Legionella offences are charged under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (sections 2 and 3) and sometimes COSHH, so they are never tagged "legionella" at source and cannot be pulled out in a single query. Cases are therefore found the slow way: from HSE press releases, the register detail pages, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and local-authority announcements, and contemporaneous court reporting. Each is then recorded here with a link to its primary source and cross-checked, where one exists, against the HSE convictions register.
The rules we apply
- Organisations, not individuals. Where a director, manager or consultant was separately prosecuted as a named person, that individual is deliberately left out, even when it would add a case.
- Convictions only. Improvement and prohibition notices are not convictions. They are not listed here as offences.
- The final figure, not the headline. Where a fine was reduced on appeal we show the reduced amount and say so. Bupa Care Homes, for example, appears at £1.5m, the figure the Court of Appeal substituted for the original £3m.
- Fines and costs are separate. The totals at the top of this page count fines only. Costs, victim surcharges and conditional discharges are noted on the individual case but are not added to the fines total, so a prosecution can appear with a death and no fine (St Christopher's Hospice received a two-year conditional discharge, not a fine).
- Older cases are dated clearly and honoured for removal. The record runs back to 2005, well before the roughly ten-year window of the online HSE register, using contemporaneous reports for the older entries. We follow HSE's own removal practice: spent convictions come off after ten years and notices after five.
What this leaves out
This is not a complete list of every UK legionella prosecution, and it is not meant to be. It is the significant, well-documented cases. Older entries lean more on press reporting than on a live register. Where a defendant's exact registered legal entity or the precise charge could not be confirmed, the case is held back rather than published unverified, so a small number of real prosecutions are deliberately absent pending confirmation. The dataset also skews towards fatal and heavily reported cases, which are the easiest to source.
Corrections and removal
If you can show that a figure, a name or a detail here is wrong, out of date, or relates to a conviction that should now be treated as spent, tell us and we will correct or remove it. Use the contact page. HSE material is Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence with attribution.
Cite this dataset
This is a citable reference source. Councils, universities, training providers and journalists are welcome to quote the figures and link to this page. Suggested citation:
LegionellaCheck (2026) UK Legionella Enforcement Tracker: 28 prosecutions and £8.6m in fines, 2005–2024. Available at: https://legionellacheck.org.uk/legionella-enforcement-tracker
The tracker draws on HSE, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and local-authority records. HSE material is Crown copyright, reusable under the Open Government Licence with attribution. If you are citing a specific case, follow the primary source linked in that row. Corrections and additions are welcome through the contact page.