MD Safety comment:  It is essential that Contractors develop a safe system of work.  Clients must ensure that systems are in place to formally review proposed Contractor activities to ensure they are sufficiently risk assessed.

A company has been fined after shocked onlookers spotted an employee precariously working from height while standing on a pallet raised by a forklift truck at Ramsgate Harbour.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted European Active Projects (EAP) Limited for breaching Work at Height Regulations after one of its workers was spotted on the pallet on 8 July 2022. The workplace regulator was alerted to the activity after it was reported by a member of the public, who managed to capture the terrifying debacle on video.

MD Safety comment:  This case demonstrates why a work at height risk assessment resulting int he correct choice of access equipment is essential.

A company and its director have been sentenced after an employee fell from height and suffered serious injuries.  Andrew Smith fractured his left femur, left elbow, left arm and pelvis after falling approximately three metres off a ladder on 28 July 2021.

MD Safety comment:  Planning is essential to avoid these types of accidents when undertaking work at height.

A roofing company has been fined a total of £881,000 after two workers were seriously injured during two separate incidents.  Billy Hewitt, a worker at Mitie Tilley Roofing Limited, fractured his pelvis after falling through a factory roof in Newcastle. Meanwhile, a 24-year-old labourer employed by RM Scaffolding broke his femur after falling through the roof of a building in Swansea while working on a project run by Mitie Tilley Roofing Limited.

There has been little improvement in reducing the number of workplace falls from height over the past year, statistics have revealed.  The statistics from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) show over 5,000 people were injured at work in the UK last year due to a fall from height – and 40 people also lost their lives.

A garage has been fined £12,000 after a customer  was crushed by his own vehicle at a garage in North London.  Tottenham resident Mahmut Emanet is “lucky to be alive”, according to an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

We speak to HSE inspector Kevin Smith about how a failure during cradle manufacture, and then two failures to safety test it, led to two men falling 90ft down the side of a tower block.  Just over three years ago, two workers – Marcel Botnaru and Radu Baracu – were in a cradle working on level nine of a residential tower that was under construction in Pennington Street, London. However, as they manoeuvred the cradle, it fell 90 ft to the ground below. Miraculously, although the men suffered significant injuries, they both survived.HSE inspector Kevin Smith explained how this incident, with its obvious potential for a fatal outcome, came about.

MD Safety comment:  This will have significant and direct impact for business managing properties and will have indirect impacts for many others.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has published its first three-year strategic plan. 

BSR is leading a critical change in culture and behaviours across industry and the whole built environment. The strategic plan establishes a vision to create a built environment where everyone is competent and takes responsibility to ensure buildings are of high quality and are safe.

This represents the most significant change to regulation of building safety for a generation and means residents and other building users can be confident that industry is working together to make sure the tragedies of the past will never be repeated.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched an investigation into the fire at a high-rise under construction in Reading on Thursday.  More than 50 firefighters and aerial equipment were needed to extinguish the fire at the Sir Robert McAlpine site. 

A rendering company in Manchester has been fined £3,000 after a HSE inspector noticed unsafe scaffolding on a house renovation as he happened to be driving past.  The company had been issued with a Prohibition Notice after a HSE inspector drove through the area on 17 February 2022 and spotted the scaffolding its workers were using at the property.

A lift maintenance company has been fined after an employee died while working at a factory run by Muller Yogurt and Desserts. Lift Monitoring Systems Limited, previously known as RJ Lift Services Limited, was fined £200,000 on Monday following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the death of 24-year-old Lewis McFarlin, a lift engineer employed by the Staffordshire company.