A waste management company has been fined £190,000 after a contractor died when he fell seven metres while carrying out maintenance work.  The experienced maintenance contractor was part of a team under the control and direction of Wiltshire-based Hills Waste Solutions Limited. He sustained fatal injuries in the fall on November 18, 2020, while working on a mechanical screening and separating plant on the Hills Waste Solutions site in Stephenson Road, Westbury.

A property development company has been fined £8,000 for failing to adequately assess the risks involved in a refurbishment project, despite having been subject to previous enforcement action.  Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors visited a Daneets Developments Limited site in Bond Street, Blackpool, on 7 June 2021 during which enforcement action was taken in relation to general fire precautions, slips and trips, a failure to provide welfare, work at height, use of personal protective equipment, electrical safety, and potential exposure to asbestos.

A Devon-based timber company has been fined £80,000 after an employee fell through a stairwell while working on a barn conversion. The 49-year-old driver and warehouse operative, employed by Lamisell Limited, was working on the barn, which was being converted for rental use, at the company’s address near Okehampton, on 14 May 2018.

Two people have died and two others have been injured in an industrial incident in Devon.  Police and ambulance crews were called to West Country Concrete Products in Shebbear at about 15:25 BST on Tuesday 23 August where one man was pronounced dead at the scene.

A bus company has been fined £380,000 after one of its employees was crushed between a reversing bus and a stationary vehicle.  The employee of Stagecoach Devon Limited was working at the company’s Torquay depot on the morning of 3 October 2019.  Due to space limitations, it is reported that the buses often had to reverse to be able to leave the depot in readiness for the day’s work.

A carpentry and joinery company has been fined after a man working unsecured on the forks of a fork-lift truck fell 3.5 metres to the ground.  On 14 June 2021, the man was working for Staircraft Group Limited at their head office site at Bayton Road Industrial Estate, Exhall, Coventry.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published the third edition of its free-to-order Fire safety in construction book, which includes an added focus on eliminating or reducing fire risks at the design stage.  The revised HSG168 publication, which is aimed at those responsible for procuring, designing, developing and managing construction sites, including clients and designers, explains how they can comply with their legal duties in relation to fire risks. 

In 2021 multiple concerns about unsafe work at a construction site in Irvine had been sent to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).  On 16th March 2021, two HSE inspectors attended the site and saw unsafe work at height taking place on a steel structure.  The inspectors tried to gain entry to the site, but the gates were locked.  They spoke to the person in control of the site, Baldev Singh Basra, but he refused to unlock the gates and let them in.  Despite explaining the powers to enter a premise given to HSE inspectors as part of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Singh Basra still refused entry to the site.

The Health & Safety Executive will fine companies that expose workers to hazardous excessive levels of vibrations. Yet the organisation’s own guidance doesn’t require businesses to continually monitor workers. Russ Langthorne of HAVSPRO considers why it’s time for real-time monitoring and measurement to be mandated in the regulations.

How weather is precred again.  The met Office has published advice to help you stay safe.

A range of advice to help you deal with severe weather. Tips and advice on how to stay safe, cool and healthy at home or outdoors.  All types of weather can affect you, those around you, and your property. Make sure you're prepared by checking our seasonal tips and advice. Find the latest articles here and scroll down for advice on travel, your home and health and wellbeing.