That the circumstances of one in three deaths at work fail to be examined in fatal accident inquiries (FAIs) and the number of health and safety cases recommended for prosecution has dropped by 50% suggests a possible lessening of concern about health and safety at work in Scotland's prosecution service.

This is a worrying situation. FAIs are held to establish the facts around sudden, unexplained or suspicious deaths and in the case of deaths at work this is vital in ensuring lessons are learned and effective measures taken to prevent further tragedies. For many families of people who have died as a result of an accident at work, the difficult experience of listening to the evidence at an inquiry can be borne only because the process will have this positive outcome, separate from any prosecution that might also take place.

Since an FAI is mandatory following work-related deaths in Scotland, serious questions must be raised as to why this is not happening in one in three cases, according to statistics compiled by solicitors specialising in this area.

The explanation from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is that the mandatory provision can be waived if criminal proceedings have been concluded and the Lord Advocate is satisfied circumstances of the death have been sufficiently established. The problem with this approach is where responsibility is admitted the full facts will not be rehearsed in public and there will be no opportunity to question those responsible. In the case of the deaths of two offshore oil workers exposed to hydrocarbon gases, the original decision not to hold an FAI was particularly alarming given the clear implications for the safety of other workers. That was, correctly, overturned but alarm bells must sound over figures showing the number of cases of health and safety breaches recommended for prosecution has halved over three years since responsibility passed to COPFS.

The memory of the ICL plastics factory blast which killed nine people in Glasgow in 2004 as a result of gas seeping out of corroded pipes should have resulted in a greater awareness and tightening of procedures in recent years but the figures we reveal today suggest the lower number of enforcement orders and prosecutions owes more to a lighter regulatory touch than a more scrupulous approach by employers. The call for a hotline to allow whistleblowers to report concerns anonymously should be the first move towards better enforcement of safety standards.