MD Safety comment: This case high;ights the need to undertale Work Equiopment Risk Assessments (as required by PUWER)

A manufacturing company has been fined after an employee broke his arm while operating machinery at its site in Warwickshire.  Andrew Elson, from Rugby, suffered multiple fractures to the ulna and radius bones in his right arm while working at Screening Consultancy and Supplies Ltd on 25 November 2022.

Health and safety experts are calling for urgent action to tackle an epidemic of long working hours.  It follows a study by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) which suggested that one in two workers are putting in two extra hours without pay every week.

A company has been fined more than a quarter of a million pounds after a 62-year-old worker fell and died during the construction of a new university building in Birmingham.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the national regulator for workplace safety, investigated the fall and subsequently prosecuted the infrastructure company Balfour Beatty, with the firm fined £285,000 on Monday.

Twelve-year-old Louis Watkiss died after an accident at the Snowdome at Tamworth on 24 September 2021.After an initial joint investigation with Staffordshire Police, HSE can now confirm Snowdome Limited has been charged with breaching section 3 of Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.The case is listed for a first hearing at Telford Magistrates Court on 9 October 2024. 

A company has been sentenced after a 62-year-old worker fell 10 metres to the ground and died during the construction of a new university facility.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the fall and subsequently prosecuted Balfour Beatty, with the firm fined £285,000 on Monday 16 September.

A grandfather died after falling through a hole in his own bathroom that had been left by workers.  Kenneth Armitage landed on the kitchen floor below, in an incident his daughter Suzy said “should never have happened.”

An Essex-based tyre refurbishment company has been fined £54,000 following a worker sustaining significant injuries after being drawn into a machine.  Neal Hetherington was working for D&D Commercial Services Limited at its premises on Lamson Road in Rainham, when the incident happened on 19 August 2021.

A North London food manufacturer has been fined £150,000 for failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.  The failings came to light following a routine inspection by Britain’s workplace regulator – the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in October 2023.

MD Safety comment: An unfortunate and yet totally avoidable incident.

A company has been fined after a man died while working inside an excavation at a construction site in Glasgow.  Derek Caddie lost his life when part of the excavation wall collapsed on 25 November 2019.

The National Grid has been fined more than £3million after its failures left a father-of-two with life-changing injuries from working on a pylon in South Wales.