Wright Safety Solutionsestablished 2006

providing Health and Safety for Coventry and Warwickshire small/medium businesses

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8 February 2010 Charles Painting (UK) Ltd of Sheffield has been fined £2,000 after a worker's 7 metre fall caused life-changing injuries. The HSE investigation found that there were no working platforms, guardrails, scaffold or sufficient means of protection provided on the roof or underneath to prevent the fall. The company was fined £2,000 and was ordered to pay £1,000 in costs. The employee suffered multiple fractures to his legs and arm when he fell through a fragile roof surface and this has seriously changed his life. Compensation claims will be significant in this case. 25 January 2010 Scotcare Preservation Ltd of Edinburgh has been fined a total of £3,600 for failing to ensure properly trained staff were managing a construction site in Galashiels. The company admitted that during a house construction in 2008 it failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees by failing to provide adequate supervision of workers. It also admitted to not providing the site foreman with adequate health and safety training and failing to put adequate precautions in place to prevent falls from height, failing to provide adequate washing facilities and neglecting to ensure scaffolding was regularly inspected. The company was prosecuted under Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Work at Height Regulations 2005. Scotcare also admitted failing to comply with two improvement notices served by HSE inspector Gordon McLelland in August 2008.

8 December 2009 Waxport Ltd of Edmonton, London has been fined for failing to carry out proper risk assessments for the presence of asbestos before a major office refurbishment in Merthyr Tydfil. The company had previously been issued with advice from a licensed asbestos contractor advising them to complete an asbestos survey in April 2007 but they failed to do so and advised a contractor that asbestos was not present in the building. Work commenced and asbestos was disturbed with work only stopping when a site worker identified the substance. Employees and contractors were put at risk without an asbestos survey. They were fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,416.43. 22 October 2009 Ineos Manufacturing Scotland Ltd of Grangemouth has been fined for breaching health and safety law after a worker was burned by live power cables. The company was prosecuted for failing to ensure a safe system of work was in place before undertaking excavation work near live electrical cables. A subcontractor needed hospital treatment for burns to his hands and face after he struck two live 3,300-volt cables with a jJackhammer. Ineos Manufacturing Scotland Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Electricity at Work Regulations and was fined £1500 on 20 October. 31 August 2009 TQR Ltd has been fined £6,000 after a 19 year old worker fell almost 10 metres whilst carrying out refurbishment work on the roof of a building in Bonnyrigg. And David O’Neil, a sub contractor who supplied the labour for the job, working under the direction of TQR Ltd., was fined £3,000. During the course of the work, the injured person stepped onto an unprotected plastic fragile rooflight at the ridge of the roof. The rooflight gave way and he fell almost 10 metres to the factory floor below, sustaining serious injuries. Compensation claims will be significant in this case. 15 June 2009 Dodson and Horrell Ltd (Kettering) were fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,255 when they failed to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees undertaking maintenance that involved working at height. A 53-year-old local worker was oiling the chains on a machine that stacks bags of animal feed onto pallets, when he fell approximately six feet, resulting in bruised ribs and a punctured lung. The HSE Inspector "The risks of working at height always need to be fully assessed as every month 1,000 workers suffer a serious injury following a slip, trip or a fall in the workplace. 8 June 2009 Metal Containers Ltd (South Wirral) was fined a total of £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,735 A machine operator's hand became drawn into an the unguarded chain drive. The operator was able to withdraw his hand but it had been injured by the teeth of the chain sprocket. Metal Containers Ltd had failed to identify the risks involved in clearing machine blockages and the need for guarding on the machine’s exposed moving parts. The company had not taken sufficient measures to guard its employees from dangerous parts of machinery. Allowing machines to be operated without suitable and appropriate guards blatantly ignores the safety of employees and is a fundamental failure by the company. 2 June 2009 BAM Construction Limited (London) was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £13,540 costs for failure to effectively plan, organise, control, monitor and review traffic on site. On a construction site Pyrotect Limited, a sub-contractor, was working under the control of BAM Construction Limited tasked with installing the fire protection system on site. A fitter with Pyrotect Limited was knocked over by a fork-lift truck. The fitter suffered a broken tibia and fibia in his left leg, wounds in his left foot, a broken left ankle and dislocated a bone in his right leg. Almost two years on, he has still not returned to work HSE Inspector said: "This was a very serious and preventable incident which has resulted in a man being away from work for nearly two years. Workplace transport is one of the major causes of fatal incidents and major injuries. The company had safety policies in place but not properly implemented and monitored at site level". Compensation claims will be significant in this case. 29 May 2009 An employee at The Amtico Co. Ltd. (Coventry) lost a finger in an accident. The company has been fined £75,000 and told to pay £23,721 costs. The fines are high because this is Amtico's third offense. The company had failed to guard moving parts of machinery. The employee went under a machine to cut away an obstruction, but his left glove became caught between high-speed rollers. The employee lost his ring finger, and suffered crushing and burn injuries to his other fingers and forearm. At the time of the incident, there was no guard to prevent access to the dangerous moving parts of the machine. HSE Inspector said: "This man has suffered life-changing injuries," Compensation claims will be significant in this case.

19 May 2009 HSE prosecuted JBM International Ltd. (Staffordshire) for its failure to make a suitable risk assessment of the safety of those the operating rotary valves of the dust extraction unit. JBM was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,614. An employee was investigating a possible blockage to the dust extraction unit when his left hand was severely damaged by rotating blades. The machine had been in operation for 10-15 years yet it had evidently not been subjected to a suitable risk assessment because it had not been engineered in any way to protect operatives. 14 May 2009 Agricultural contractors Pete Mellor Ltd of Burton on Trent were fined a total £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,500. An employee repairing a forklift truck caused the counterbalance weight, 1.8 tonnes to fall onto a self-employed worker who was walking past at the time. The weight crushed the man's left leg which had to be amputated below the knee. HSE inspector said: "The incident resulted from an unsafe system of work. The weight was not supported during removal and the person carrying out the repair had been given insufficient information and instruction. Also, the injured party was allowed to walk through the work area. "A risk assessment for the job was not carried out. A suitable and sufficient assessment would have addressed all of these issues and a man may not have been left with a life-changing disability." Compensation claims will be significant in this case. 8 August 2008 A manager at a construction company has been prosecuted after an employee in Mansfield suffered severe injuries when he fell from an unprotected wall. The injured employee was knocked unconscious and suffered cuts to his head with severe bruising and swelling, a fracture to his left thumb, which has resulted in permanent loss of movement, and severely bruised legs. He also suffered from nerve damage to his right temple and now suffers short-term memory loss. Simon Ludgate, a manager for Real Estate (Midlands) Ltd., was fined £1,500 for failing to provide a safe workplace AND for failing to report a serious accident. He also pleaded guilty to failures following another incident in Wollaton, Nottingham. Compensation claims will be significant in this case. July 2008 - A safe site provides Pedestrian/Vehicle separation Accident data: 76% of work transport deaths (12 per year average) are "struck by vehicle" accidents, and inadequate pedestrian/vehicle segregation is a contributory factor to a large proportion of these. The main vehicle groups involved in these accidents are lorries, construction vehicles, tractors and forklift trucks. On some sites complete separation of vehicles and pedestrians will be achievable, but this is not the case on all sites. You should provide a system in the workplace which restricts the movement of vehicles to areas which are demarcated from areas where pedestrians have access, e.g. using physical barriers such as railings or other measures such as bollards, kerbing, pedestrian pavements or a system of painted lines on the floor, combined with appropriate signing. If site transport is creating problems on your site ask Wright Safety Solutions to conduct a full risk assessment and advise on a realaistic and cost effective solution that protetcts pedestrians on your site. Case study: AGC Automotive (UK) Ltd of Northampton were fined £150,000 and costs of £9,460 after a visiting IT contractor suffered a serious multiple fracture of his left leg when he was hit by a reversing fork-lift truck on the company's premises. The serious workplace transport collision occurred because a fork-lift truck moving pallets and was manoeuvring over a walkway line. There was no separation of vehicles and pedestrians during this operation. Pedestrians should have been excluded from the area by means of temporary bollards or fencing and warning signs but no attempt at segregation was made. A few months before the accident, following a routine inspection, AGC had been instructed to control and monitor fork-lift truck movements both inside and outside the factory units but had failed to comply adequately. Compensation claims will be significant in this case. 30 June 2008 A printing company in Suffolk has been prosecuted following several breaches of health and safety laws. Clays Ltd of Bungay was fined £32,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,000. The company pleaded guilty to three separate breaches of safety legislation. An employee was carrying out maintenance on the roof of the site, when he slipped and fell through a skylight. He fell several meters onto a metal cage and sustained multiple injuries causing him to be off work for several months. An HSE investigation found that there were limited safeguards to prevent injury from falling from height and poor health and safety standards were found in other areas of the site, including the use of actuator keys to disarm guarding on machinery. The keys allow the user to override the safety devices and use the machines unguarded. Employees were also found to be working on the racking at the site warehouse without adequate safeguards to prevent falls from height. 8 May 2008 Two companies have been fined £35,000 each after a man died when he fell through a rooflight while carrying out maintenance work at a farm. An employee of TH White Installations Ltd of Wiltshire, was carrying out servicing work at Manor Farm, Kingston Deverill, when he fell eight metres from a timber walkway nailed to a fragile asbestos cement roof. The HSE investigator found that TH White had not put any safety measures in place, such as an adequate walkway, edge protection or a means of attaching a fall harness. TH White and RF Stratton & Co. both pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and in addition to the fines were each ordered to pay £8,000 costs. 12 March 2008 Two companies have been fined a total of £125,000 after construction site worker was fatally crushed by a tonne of toughened glass, five panes of glass toppled on to him during work to instal cladding at a building in Bishops Square, London. The accident was blamed on the way the crates were placed on blocks making them likely to topple over. Permasteelisa and Newnorth (Hartelepool) both admitted responsibility; Permasteelisa was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £31,487 costs while Newnorth was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay nearly £8,000 in costs.

January 2008 HSE have prosecuted Severn Trent Water Ltd. after an employee lost four fingers and part of his palm. The firm was fine nearly £20,000 and ordered to pay over £6,000 in costs. Their employee was trying to unblock a machine used for removing debris from sludge when his left hand became caught in the machinery. The interlock on the machine’s lid was damaged, leaving the dangerous parts in the machine unguarded. HSE inspector David Butter said: “This was an entirely avoidable accident which resulted in a man losing four fingers. Injuries from poorly-maintained equipment remain a significant and regular problem nationwide and companies must ensure that equipment is regularly inspected and maintained so workers aren’t exposed to this kind of risk.” 2 October 2007 At Dawson-Wam Ltd of Bedfordshire an employee was killed in 2002 when the auger drive unit of a piling rig he was attempting to dismantle flew off its stand and struck him. Dawson-Wam Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £76,128.68 at Croydon Crown Court in September 2007. 23 August 2007 Following an investigation at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, Wear Valley District Council was fined £18,000 after admitting six offences under the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. It was also ordered to pay nearly £8,000 costs. The investigation followed a complaint in January 2006 by a maintenance worker, who discovered that the plant room of the council-run leisure centre where he had worked for many years contained asbestos. HM Inspector of Health and Safety, Richard Bishop, said: "A survey had been carried out in 2001 which identified asbestos containing materials. This information was not acted upon and no-one who worked in the plant room was made aware. As a result, work that was liable to disturb the asbestos was done without the necessary precautions required by law to protect their health from exposure. "This case should serve as a warning, not only to Local Authorities, but to everyone responsible for carrying out or contracting maintenance work on buildings where asbestos may be present. "With up to 4,000 deaths per year - that’s around 15 times the current rate of fatal accidents at work - asbestos-related diseases are the largest occupational killers in the UK. There is still a legacy of asbestos in buildings that needs addressing. It is estimated that some half a million non-domestic premises contain asbestos of some type. And this means there are still workers putting themselves at risk every day. Recent studies estimate that a quarter of those dying from an asbestos-related disease worked as electricians, plumbers, maintenance workers or builders. "Where asbestos has been found to be present in buildings, the risk it presents must be evaluated and written plans devised and implemented that specify the steps necessary to address the risk. All work liable to expose people to asbestos must be carefully planned and assessed, with appropriate precautions taken to prevent or reduce exposure and the spread of asbestos." 18 June 2007 An employee of Permanent Flooring Ltd. died in May 2004 after the concrete pump he was working on came into contact with an 11kV overhead power line at a site in Bala. Another worker on the site received an electric shock but was uninjured. Two companies were prosecuted. Permanent Flooring Ltd of Flintshire pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act) for failing to ensure Mr Roberts’ safety and to a charge under Section 2(1) of the HSW Act for putting Mr Gittins at risk. They were fined £6,000 and ordered to pay a contribution towards costs of £12,000. R.L. Davies and Son Ltd of Conwy pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the HSW Act in relation to the death and were fined £25,000. They were also ordered to pay costs of £15,814.54. HSE Inspector Chris Wilcox said: "Each year there are around 1000 incidents involving electric shock at work, and about 30 of these have resulted in fatalities. 7 June 2007 Silvery Tweed Cereals Ltd was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of over £5,000 at Berwick Magistrates’ Court after an employee was paralysed in an accident involving a forklift truck. A bin which he was attempting to empty fell from the forks of a forklift truck and pinned him to the ground. The company was fined after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (£16,000 fine) and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. (£4,000 fine). Compensation claims will be significant in this case. HSE Inspector Martin Baillie said: "Forklift trucks were responsible for just under 2,000 reportable incidents last year, including seven deaths. They are a potential danger to their operators and to other people in the vicinity if not operated with great care. Risks include being struck by a moving truck, crushed by an overturning vehicle, becoming trapped between a truck and an object or, as in this case being crushed by a falling load. "Employers must ensure they assess the risks involved in any use of these vehicles and take appropriate steps to counter those risks. They must also provide adequate health and safety training for any employees operating forklift trucks. “In this case Silvery Tweed Cereals Ltd did not ensure the load was adequately secured, nor did they make a suitable risk assessment and they did not ensure that all of their operators received adequate forklift truck training". The incident occurred at the company’s premises on Tweedside Trading Estate, Tweedmouth, Berwick upon Tweed, on 29 June 2006.

18 May 2007 Wye Valley Demolition Ltd of St Weonards, Hereford, was fined £6,000 and asked to pay costs of more than £13,000 at Hereford Magistrates’ Court following the release of asbestos during the demolition of a former grain store building in Bodenham. The HSE Principal Inspector for Construction said: “People working in the construction industry need to exercise caution when working in areas that may contain asbestos. Asbestos should not be treated lightly as it causes 3,500 deaths in Britain each year, with annual numbers predicted to go on rising into the next decade. All people working in areas that may contain asbestos need to be aware of the dangers to others and the financial penalties imposed if asbestos is mishandled. The risks from asbestos cement are lower than from other asbestos materials but contractors still need to take proper precautions.” This prosecution followed an incident between 25 and 29 June 2004 during the demolition of a former grain store building at Chapel Lane, Bodenham. The building contained asbestos cement sheets which should have been removed under controlled conditions but which instead were smashed to the ground by a machine then spread over the demolition site. Wye Valley Demolition Ltd pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 10(1) and Regulation 15 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) came into force on 6 April 2007. Everyone in construction needs to know about the new construction health and safety regulations. If you are involved in construction projects then CDM 2007 will help you to: - Improve health and safety in your industry - Have the right people for the right job at the right time to manage the risks on site - Focus on effective planning and managing risk - manage the risk not the paperwork Wright Safety Solutions can offer safety services to construction projects,and this is explained in my CDM 2007 Guide but you should also learn about what the new CDM Regulations mean for you, including: the business benefits, your roles and responsibilities and practical advice by visiting the HSE website, starting at http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm.htm 16 May 2007 A haulage company subcontracted to carry out work on behalf of a steel fabrication business has been fined £7,500 after a driver was crushed underneath a one-tonne steel beam. Road haulage sole trader Ron Boyd Trading received the fine after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Contractors McDonald and Ross were fined £30,000 after it also pleaded guilty to breaches under the Act. The Ron Boyd Trading employee died when the beams were being unloaded from a vehicle in Leith in October 2005. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed McDonald and Ross had failed to assess the risks involved in loading and unloading steel and failed to ensure the steel was correctly placed upon the timber bearers on the vehicle. Ron Boyd had failed to ensure that his employees involved in loading, unloading and transporting steel to site had been properly trained. An HSE spokesman says: "The publicity from companies being fined will hopefully make those in similar positions take note. They have to make sure loads on vehicles have to be properly secured." 25 April 2007 Dawson Wam Ltd of Bedfordshire was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £34,425 after pleading guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 that they failed to ensure the health and safety of their employees. A piling rig operator died in May 2004, four days after an incident on the site of the Quinn Glass bottle manufacturing facility in Chester. Workers were attempting to clear a blockage in a hose using compressed air and during the unblocking the hose whipped upwards and struck an employee on the head, causing fatal injuries. HSE prosecuted Dawson Wam Ltd, alleging that they had failed to ensure the provision and maintenance of systems of work which were safe and without risk to employees during the cleaning and unblocking of the piling rig and associated equipment. HSE argued that despite the company being aware that this was a high risk operation, they had failed to carry out a formal risk assessment of the cleaning and unblocking of the rig, which meant there was no safe system of working. 13 April 2007 The director of Techlink Enterprises Ltd, an office furniture manufacturer, of Burscough, was charged with offences related to failing to comply with two Improvement Notices. He was fined £2,000 and ordered him to pay £1,000 costs. HSE Inspector reported "The Improvement Notices offered the opportunity to carry out the work that needed to be done to ensure that employees didn’t suffer ill health because of the wood dust in the air and that a hand rail was fitted to the mezzanine level. "When HSE returned to the business premises they found that the work had not been carried out and this prosecution has resulted. Improvement Notices are only issued where action needs to be taken for the safety and protection of employees. In this case a company director did not ensure the work was carried out when the Improvement Notices were issued, leaving the health and safety of staff at risk.” The company director pleaded guilty of two charges under section 37(1)(1) Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, of allowing offences to be committed by his company by failing to comply with the requirements of Improvement Notices. 11 April 2007 Agrilek Ltd of Duke Street, Barrow in Furness were fined £2,500 and ordered to pay over £1,800 costs after pleading guilty to a breach of Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (1998) following the incident in August 2006 when a 49 year-old employee lost the tip of his index finger when he was using a guillotine. HSE inspector reported that the employee lost the tip of his finger in the guillotine because his employers failed to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the machine. The consequences of this incident could have been far worse. This case graphically illustrates that companies should ensure all their machinery is properly guarded for the safety of all employees. 7 March 2007 SFJ Ltd, of Bangor, were fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,500 following the incident in February 2005 in which an employee received his injuries and was paralyzed. HSE inspector Debbie John said: “This was a tragic set of circumstances which led to this accident, but it demonstrates how important it is to be properly trained to use machinery or any kind.” The employee was assisting with the unloading of a cement mixer from the back of a pick up truck. His supervisor was not adequately trained to operate the excavator which was being used to lift the cement mixer from the truck. The employee was lifted into the air with the cement mixer, and he fell and sustained injuries which led to the paralysis. SFJ Ltd admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, relating to an employer's responsibility to ensure the safety of their employees. Every year, around 70 people are killed, and a further 2000 injured as a result of incidents involving vehicles at work. This case also provides a reminder that it can be extremely dangerous to fall even from a relatively low height. 2 March 2007 DHL Exel has been ordered to pay a total of more than £33,000 in fines and costs after a worker died unloading a truck. The accident occurred in April 2004 during Tibbett and Britten's ownership, before Exel's purchase of the company two months later. Forklift driver John Rowland, 25, was crushed to death when a plastic bale, weighing half a tonne, toppled from a trailer as he unloaded it at the Runcorn depot. The company admitted that it had failed to supply written safety procedures for dealing with unsafe loads, during a hearing before Runcorn magistrates. In mitigation it was said that the company had undertaken risk assessments previously but on this occasion staff had not been correctly trained in dealing with unsafe loads. The company was fined £10,000 with £23,300 costs. 16th January 2007 Three workers have been injured in an acid leak at a Grimsby chemicals plant. Firefighters praised the on-site safety team who isolated the leak at the Novartis site on the Pyewipe industrial estate, and treated the casualties. All three men escaped with minor injuries after inhaling hydrochloric acid fumes early on Tuesday morning. None needed hospital treatment. Humberside Fire & Rescue Service said the acid had leaked from a pipe during routine maintenance work on a tank. Novartis safety personnel wearing protective gear set up a water spray to dilute the spillage and prevent the leak spreading further. 15th January 2007 More problems for Falcon Crane Hire Ltd: HSE served a Prohibition Notice on Falcon Crane Hire Ltd on 17 January 2007 which required them, with immediate effect, to take out of service all tower cranes in their fleet which have not been subject to a thorough examination by an independent competent person. At approximately 16:10 on Monday 15 January 2007 on a David McClean Ltd construction site at Colquitt Street, Liverpool city centre, a JASO J138PA luffing jib crane on hire from Falcon Crane Hire Ltd collapsed. As a result of the incident one person was killed and the driver of the crane was seriously injured . At around 17:50 on Tuesday 26 September 2006 on a Barratts Home construction site at Thessaly Road, Battersea, London SW8, there was a tower crane collapse. Two people were killed as a result of the incident - the driver of the crane and a member of the public. The crane involved is owned and was provided by Falcon Crane Hire Ltd and is a BPR saddle jib tower, Model 222. 4th January 2007 Several people were reported injured, including one person with serious burns, following a chemical release at an industrial site at Seal Sands, Teesside. The site, operated by BASF plc, produces chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics. Inspectors from HSE' went to the site, together with an inspector from the Environment Agency, and an investigation has commenced. Recognised as a high-hazard location, the site is subject to the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations.

22 December 2006 Centura Food Ltd pleaded guilty to two criminal charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the accident at its premises at Fitzroy Street, Droylsden, Manchester. On 3 May 2005 an employee of Centura Foods Ltd. was hit by a reversing forklift truck in a warehouse on site and suffered severe injuries to her left leg and ankle. Centura Foods Ltd, part of the RHM Group, was fined a total of £60,000 and ordered to pay £5,724 costs at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court. 22 December 2006 In September 2002 a worker fell eight metres to his death when he stepped on a fragile roof in Warrington . The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) successfully brought criminal charges against five different parties, between them they were fined a total of £87,000 and ordered to pay over £57,000 costs.. Today the HSE construction inspector said: "This prosecution follows the tragic death of a young man on a site in Warrington. Unfortunately, his death is not unique: on average, one person is killed on a construction site in Great Britain every five or six days, and many more are seriously injured." Elmsgold Haulage Ltd, Manchester and the Managing Director of Elmsgold Haulage Ltd. pleaded guilty to two charges in that they failed to provide a safe system of work and failed to ensure that people working on site were properly trained and supervised, and a third charge that they failed to ensure that lifting equipment was properly examined and inspected. Elmsgold Haulage was fined £10,000 for each charge and ordered to pay total costs of £10,000. The MD was fined £5,000 for each charge and ordered to pay costs of £5,000. Demolition contractor Excavation & Contracting (UK) Ltd of Manchester, and the company's former MD, pleaded guilty to a charge that they each failed to ensure that risks to non-employees were adequately controlled. Excavation & Contracting (UK) Ltd was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs. The former MD was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs. Elmsgold Haulage's site foreman pleaded guilty to a charge that he failed to ensure the safety of other employees. He was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,500 costs. At an earlier hearing on 31 January 2006, a partner of Knight Frank, property management company, pleaded guilty to two charges under the construction regulations and fined a total of £7,000 plus costs of £4,500. This serves as a reminder to companies of the need to ensure proper training and supervision is given to employees.

30 November 2006 Photo Me International plc, Surrey, was fined a total of £100,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs after at least three employees in the South West developed a serious and extremely painful form of skin disease linked to the photographic chemicals they used. It reflects the increasing priority the HSE are placing on work-related health risks due to dangerous substances, manual handling and stress. Investigations revealed a catalogue of failings in the company's management and control of chemicals. The employees suffered 'allergic contact dermatitis' which became more severe over a period leading to the three employees' 'sensitisation' to the chemicals. Photo-Me were fined £30,000 for a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and £10,000 for 6 breaches of the COSHH Regulations for not making adequate risk assessments, not preventing or controlling exposure of employees to chemicals, and for not providing any 'health surveillance' of employees at-risk. They were also fined £10,000 for not reporting a case of the disease to HSE, and were ordered to pay £30,000 costs.

30 November 2006 Reconstruction Co (Manchester) Ltd was fined a total of £10,500 and ordered to pay £2000 costs after pleading guilty to three criminal safety charges. The charges were brought because an employee suffered serious injuries to his left hand while using an inadequately guarded circular saw at premises in Oldham in June 2005. The company was fined £3,500 for not providing information, instructions and training to the employee. Fined £3,500 for use of machinery not equipped with adequate guarding. Also fined £3,500 in that no suitable risk assessment had been undertaken for the work being performed.

29 November 2006 Pin Croft Dyeing and Printing Co Ltd., Chorley, was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 full costs after pleading guilty to three criminal charges brought by the HSE following the death of an employee in a tow tractor incident. The death was entirely preventable by simple health and safety precautions including provision of a well maintained vehicle, a properly maintained floor surface and sufficient training. The company failed to ensure the safety of their employee in that they failed to make a suitable assessment of the risks of the job. Every year over 50 people are killed in accidents involving workplace transport. This particular accident illustrates the importance of employers providing safe sites, safe vehicles and safe drivers.

14 November 2006 A garage operator was found guilty of not having Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance and ordered to pay £11,500 in fines, costs and compensation. The charges against his Company Southern Gas Conversions Limited were dismissed as the Court felt that the owner himself was responsible for the breaches. A 17-year old who had been working as a mechanic the premises in Sutton had been harmed after an incident with a vehicle, which caused her to suffer injuries to her left leg resulting in a hospital stay and permanent scarring. The garage owner claimed students were just attending his business to watch, but the student said she had carried out a range of mechanical tasks for the garage including paint stripping and brake changing, and was paid £3 an hour. The owner had also falsely claimed to their college that he had employer's insurance cover.

References:

• 1 Health & Safety Executive website
• 2
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this page first published 12 January 2007
last updated 17 June 2019

providing Health and Safety for Coventry and Warwickshire small/medium businesses