Thursday 19th June in-person event
Witness memory: neuroscience and psychology for EHS lawyers and Examining HSE statistics and the HSE’s approach to charging decisions.
Date: Thursday 19th June 2025
Registration: 5.30pm
Seminar Start: 6:00pm
Seminar finishes: 7:00pm, followed by drinks and nibbles until 9pm
Venue: DWF, Bridgewater Place (2nd floor), Leeds
Speakers and Topics:
Witness memory: neuroscience and psychology for EHS lawyers.
Understanding how witness memory functions is crucial for gathering and evaluating witness evidence, and is becoming increasingly important in the civil and criminal courts. In this sessions, we will explore: working, semantic and episodic long-term memory; tools for assessing the reliability of witness evidence and practical steps to minimise the distortion or inhibition of witness memory at the interview stage.
This session will be delivered by Elizabeth Hyde, Director of Yorkshire based Hesper GRC. Elizabeth is a specialist in psychological safety and a former EHS lawyer. Before retraining in psychology, Elizabeth spent 17 years defending organisations against criminal investigations and prosecutions. Today, she brings techniques from the latest psychological research to support lawyers and EHS professionals in enhancing their practice.
Examining HSE statistics and the HSE’s approach to charging decisions.
The HSE Annual Report 2023/24 confirmed that the HSE completed 248 criminal prosecutions during the 23/24 period and had a conviction rate of 92%.
This session will be delivered by Craig Hassall KC and Craig will delve into those statistics and examine the reasons behind such a high conviction rate. Craig will also contrast these statistics with the position in relation to joint Police / HSE prosecutions and take a look at how the HSE approach charging decisions as well as the role of the HSE in manslaughter investigations.
Craig Hassall KC is the Head of Regulatory at Park Square Barristers and a Band 1 Silk for Health and Safety. Craig prosecutes and defends in a wide range of regulatory cases of will share some of his experience of working closely with various regulators.
All are welcome. Numbers are limited so book now to avoid disappointment.
