On this page
What it regulates
The Social Order Offences and Penalties Law defines prevention offences, sets penalties and allocates liability. This record develops only its occupational health and safety content.
Who it applies to
The Act covers employment and Social Security subjects. This entry selects OSH offences and penalties, prevention limitation periods and Article 42(3) liabilities. The complete analysis of other subjects remains linked in the official sources.
Key provisions
Article 11 defines minor prevention offences, including certain recordkeeping and formal duties. Classification requires checking that the facts do not constitute a serious or very serious offence.
Article 11Examples of serious offences include failing to integrate prevention, assess or plan for risks, carry out required health surveillance or investigate harm, subject to the scope and conditions of each offence.
Article 12Very serious offences include breaches of pregnancy and young-worker protection, disobeying a stop-work order for serious and imminent danger and breaching health-information confidentiality. Apply the specific offence; an accident does not automatically constitute a very serious infringement.
Article 13Grade an occupational risk prevention penalty using Article 39(3), including danger, persistence of risk, actual or potential harm, workers affected, protective measures and preventive conduct; do not count again elements already part of the offence.
Article 39The current general occupational risk prevention bands in Article 40(2) are: minor, €45–2,450; serious, €2,451–49,180; very serious, €49,181–983,736. Each band has minimum, medium and maximum grades; the general amounts for other matters in Article 40(1) do not apply.
Article 40For occupational risk prevention offences, limitation periods are one year for minor, three for serious and five for very serious offences, from the offence date, subject to the applicable interruption and calculation rules.
Article 4Article 42(3) provides for the principal employer’s joint and several liability in the defined contracting situations and the user undertaking’s prevention responsibility in agency work. Fraudulent arrangements to avoid that liability are void.
Article 42History and versions
Initial publication: 08/08/2000 · Initial entry into force: 01/01/2001
BOE-A-2000-15060Act 54/2003 amended prevention offences and liability; Act 32/2006 added offences related to construction subcontracting. OSH penalties were converted to euros in 2001, revised in 2007 and updated by Act 10/2021 with effect from 1 October 2021. The table is limited to these rules and excludes amendments unrelated to the selected paragraphs.
Text versions of the selected OSH provisions
| Publication | Effective date | Official reference | Affected provisions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08/08/2000 | 01/01/2001 | BOE-A-2000-15060 | Article 4, Article 11, Article 12, Article 13, Article 39, Article 40, Article 42 |
| 30/10/2001 | 19/11/2001 | BOE-A-2001-20264 | Article 40 |
| 13/12/2003 | 14/12/2003 | BOE-A-2003-22861 | Article 12, Article 13, Article 39, Article 42 |
| 19/10/2006 | 19/04/2007 | BOE-A-2006-18205 | Article 11, Article 12, Article 13 |
| 19/03/2007 | 08/04/2007 | BOE-A-2007-5742 | Article 40 |
| 10/07/2021 | 01/10/2021 | BOE-A-2021-11472 | Article 40 |
Sources for this selection:
BOE-A-2003-22861 · BOE-A-2006-18205 · BOE-A-2001-20264 · BOE-A-2007-5742 · BOE-A-2021-11472Transitional provisions and application notes
Current occupational risk prevention amounts derive from Law 10/2021, applicable from 1 October 2021. For earlier conduct, check the law applicable at the time and the rules on retroactive application of more favourable penalties.
Article 40The consolidation repealed Law 8/1988 subject to the saving in the second additional provision and transferred the penalty regime from specified articles of Law 31/1995. It did not repeal the entire Occupational Risk Prevention Law.
Repealing provision soleArticle 44 is repealed; the history also includes annulments and unconstitutionality findings concerning particular versions of other articles. These do not mean the whole LISOS is repealed or void.
Article 44The Resolution of 10 January 2024 removed the amendments from Royal Decree-law 7/2023 identified in the history. Future dates stated in that decree-law do not establish that those versions ever became applicable.
Official referenceThe BOE analysis mistakenly calls the penalties-publication decree “507/2007”. Its identifier and official publication correspond to Royal Decree 597/2007; the name is corrected here and the raw data preserved.
Official reference
Official BOE legal relationships
The displayed history is limited to the selected OSH provisions. The BOE analysis also retains the relationships affecting other subjects in the legislation.
Consult the full BOE analysis
