MD Safety comment: This is a disturbing statistic that hopefully will change for the better.  Employers need to understand the benefits not the perceived drawbacks.

Businesses must do more to create a culture where employees feel they can openly disclose they are neurodiverse, according to IOSH.  It comes as survey results reveal that more than two-thirds of neurodiverse workers haven’t told their current employer about their condition. Meanwhile less than a third said they would declare it on a job application.

MD Safety comment:  Using demonstrably competent support to help with fire safety management is vital to ensure safety and coompliance.

Andrea White, Fire Engineer and Managing Director of AW Fire, told delegates that the gap between building complexity and competence in fire safety was increasing at IOSH’s Fire Risk Management Conference in September.  

MD Safety comment:  Having systems in place to ensure isolation from sources of power is vital in ensuring safety when using and undertaking maintenance on machinery.

A company has been fined £20,000 after an employee’s arm was drawn into machinery and seriously injured.  The worker, Piotr Zielinski, 58, from Nottinghamshire, was working for food processing company Belwood Foods Limited.  His right arm was drawn into a machine and wrist crushed while cleaning poultry processing machinery at Belwood Food’s site at Lowmoor Business Park, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottingham, on 22 November 2019.

MD Safety comment: We still see a high disreagrd for managing woodworking dusts when we undertake inspections.  Inhalation of wood dusts can cause serious respiratory diseases including cancer and must be controlled.

A Lincolnshire-based sole trader has been fined after his employees were exposed to a hazardous substance.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Chris Buckley, trading as The Furniture Chest, after the workplace regulator inspected the firm’s site on Station Road, Heckington, Lincolnshire, on 7 April 2022.

A bird farm in Leeds has been fined £26,680 after a fire in a rearing shed resulted in serious injuries to one of its employees.  The incident happened at Yorkshire Game Farm, in Woodlesford, on 6th May 2020. The employee suffered second and third degree burns, and was kept in an induced coma at Pinderfields Hospital for five days, and not released from hospital until 12 days later.

MD Safety comment:  This case highlights the need to make competent appointments.

A West Midlands self-employed plumber has been jailed after carrying out further illegal and unsafe gas work.  During 2020 and 2021, Daniel Kelly Mountain, installed and worked on gas boilers and performed gas work when he was not registered as an individual with the Gas Safe Register. He also falsely advertised himself as being Gas Safe Registered. By law all gas businesses and individuals who perform gas work must be on the Gas Safe Register.

A few days after the registration deadline, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has revealed over 13,000 dutyholders have started or completed their applications.   Registration of existing high-rise residential buildings with the Building Safety Regulator, established under the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is now a legal duty as part of the Building Safety Act 2022.

A Norfolk woodworking company has been fined £25,000 for failing to control its employees’ exposure to wood dust.  A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection of The Joinery Yard Limited at Sweet Briar Road industrial estate, Norwich in November 2019 identified failings in the company’s control measures to prevent exposure of their employees to wood dust. As a result, enforcement action was taken.

Outdoor education provider PGL Travel Limited has been ordered to pay a huge £1 million fine plus costs after two children sustained significant finger injuries at an organised residential stay at the company’s Adventure Centre near Hindhead. 

Barry Challen, 50, died four days after an industrial fridge unit fell on him while working at a new Coop store in Guernsey.  Construction company Hurel Ltd was found guilty of failing to ensure the health and safety of persons not employed by them on their site.