Harry Vann specialises in Regulatory Crime, in particular, Health & Safety, Inquests and Environmental Law.
Harry joined Chambers on completion of his pupillage in 2003. After taking a career break for teaching in 2013 and relocating to York, he re-joined Chambers in August 2017, and has picked up where he left off, representing companies of all sizes, from Plcs to sole traders, as well as individual Directors and employees in prosecutions and enforcement action across the spectrum of regulatory crime
Criminal Regulatory & Environmental
Harry acts for companies and individuals in Health & Safety prosecutions arising out of serious and fatal accidents in the workplace prosecuted by the Crown, the Health & Safety Executive and local authorities. He has represented a wide range of corporates and individuals engaged in a range of industries as diverse as specialist construction refurbishment, water systems construction, asbestos, waste management, landlord’s electrical installations and swimming pool management, both at trial and negotiating pleas where necessary.
Harry’s Food Safety experience is similarly wide, with his clients ranging from individual publicans to large catering companies to nationally recognised chain restaurants.
Environmental Law
He is experienced in a very broad range of Environmental issues, again appearing for both companies and individuals in connection with prosecutions as wide ranging as the discharge of waste into waterways in the north and the destruction of protected species habitat in a multi-million-pound development on the banks of the Thames.
Selected Cases
- HSE v. Vauxhall Motors (UK) Ltd. (2013, Liverpool Crown Court)
- HSE v. Willmott Dixon [2012] EWCA Crim 1226
- HSE v. Tangerine & Veolia [2011] EWCA Crim 2015
- HSE v. Upperbay Limited [2010] EWCA Crim 495
- HSE v. UCS & Anr (2011, Chester Crown Court)
- HSE v. Foxtel Ltd (2011, Central Criminal Court)
- HSE v. Hydraline Limited (2011, Stafford Crown Court)
- HSE v. Hertel (2010, Chester Crown Court)
Inquests & Public Inquiries
Harry frequently appears at inquests for interested persons where potential prosecutions for the whole spectrum of health & safety and food safety offences are at large, including Corporate Manslaughter. Inquests in which he has been instructed have involved all manner of industrial incidents, suspected food poisoning cases, asbestos related disease and road traffic accidents.
Recommendations
“Leading Junior”
Chambers & Partners, 2014, 2013, 2012 Editions
“Leading Junior”
The Legal 500, 2011 Edition
“Runs complex arguments with panache”
Chambers & Partners, 2013