Rhian Greaves

With the news that Tom Cruise has broken his ankle doing a stunt for the new Mission Impossible movie, this raises a number of issues linked to the health and safety implications that these kinds of accidents can have on film production companies.

A film set is a workplace like any other. In the UK, that means health and safety law applies in just the same way as it does to our building sites, factories, offices, shops and cinemas.

Tom Cruise's broken ankle is a "specified injury" that will need to be reported to the HSE under the Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations ("RIDDOR"). Such a report is often the trigger for a HSE investigation into the accident circumstances and can lead to a criminal prosecution. We saw this most recently in the case of Harrison Ford, injured during the production of the latest Star Wars instalment. That incident resulted in a £1.6m fine for film production company Foodles Production (UK).

A film production company with a successful franchise (such as Star Wars or Mission Impossible) can expect to be treated as a "Large" or "Very Large" organisation by any sentencing Court by virtue of their turnover.

It's far too early to prejudge this incident but production companies need to be aware of the potential for a multi-million pound fine if found in breach of health and safety law.

Rhian Greaves, legal director at Clyde & Co