HSE has guidance on talking with your workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. UK government advice is that, from 13 December, those who can work from home should do so. Anyone who cannot  work from home should continue to go to the workplace.  As an employer, you have the same health and safety responsibilities for people working at home as for any other worker.

Main contractor Abercorn Construction has been fined after an unannounced HSE inspection found poor welfare standards, dangerous electrical systems and inadequate health and safety provision on a major residential site.  Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard how concerns had been raised regarding the health and safety standards at the construction site of the former Tobacco Warehouse at Stanley Dock in the city where renovation work is ongoing to luxury apartments.

Main contractor Abercorn Construction has been fined after an unannounced HSE inspection found poor welfare standards, dangerous electrical systems and inadequate health and safety provision on a major residential site.  Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard how concerns had been raised regarding the health and safety standards at the construction site of the former Tobacco Warehouse at Stanley Dock in the city where renovation work is ongoing to luxury apartments.

Montracon Limited has been fined for safety breaches after a worker suffered head injuries after falling from a stepladder.  The 57-year-old worker was cleaning the cant rail of a curtain side trailer that had just been manufactured, Sheffield Magistrates’ Court was told.

A company based in Knowsley which manufactures perimeter protection products has been fined after repeated breaches of health and safety law over a period of eighteen months, including contravention of an Improvement Notice.  Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard that between 29 August 2018 and 24 January 2020, despite several interventions by HSE, Securafence Ltd failed to effectively manage health and safety on site . During this time, ten Enforcement Notices were served on the company to address ongoing risk and non-compliance at the site.

A report from a forklift examiner in November 2018, which unearthed a Category A defect on a forklift, prompted a visit from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and resulted in Tahir Karim being sent to jail.  The failings at Long Life Spares in Caerphilly, south Wales, included forklift trucks with defective brake mechanisms and broken mast chains [part of the lifting mechanism], investigating inspector Sian Donne told IOSH magazine. ‘Access under a bridge structure was at risk of collapse on foot and in vehicles [pictured below], and access to the premises was directly beneath a structurally unsafe retaining wall,’ she added.

A waste management and skip hire company has been fined after a worker suffered multiple injuries when he was struck by a reversing vehicle.  A skip lorry driver drove into the waste management yard area of Thorncliffe Building Supplies’ Abergele site and parked his vehicle, 6 June 2019, Mold Magistrates’ Court was told. As he was removing the net from the skip, a loading shovel from the same company reversed into the driver, trapping him between his vehicle and the loading shovel. He sustained life changing injuries including fractures to his pelvis and a crushed bowel.

A property managing agent has been ordered to pay more than £80,000 for safety failings which “exposed a potentially large number of people to risk of death or serious injury from fire”.  London Fire Brigade inspectors found serious fire safety defects during two visits to a five-storey building on Danbury Street in Islington, which is managed by Eurolets (UK) Limited.

Farming partnership, J & D Foster Farms LLP, has been fined following an incident on its farm where a 21-year-old employee was killed whilst dismantling a redundant piece of farming equipment. Folkestone Magistrates’ Court heard how, on 30 April 2019, an employee was crushed by a grain drying tunnel at Fishpond Farm in Tonbridge. The employee, George Murrell, sustained fatal injuries.

The owner of one of the UK's largest power stations has denied risking workers' health by exposing them to wood dust.  Drax Power Ltd, based near Selby, North Yorkshire, is accused of two breaches of health and safety legislation.