Health and Safety News
We scour the Internet for Health and Safety related news items on an almost daily basis.
The news articles and clippings, curated by MD Safety, highlight the requirements for compliance with UK Health and Safety Legislation and best practice across all industry sectors.
The majority of the information and cases will apply to a greater or lesser degree to our broad range of Clients and lessons to be learned will be able to be gained.
£6.5 million fine after death of 11-year-old boy at freight terminal
WH Malcom Limited, operators of Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal near Rugby, has been fined £6.5m after being found guilty of negligence over the death of an 11-year-old boy in 2017. The company was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court following a prosecution brought by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Read MoreManufacturing firm fined after fatal incident involving forklift truck
A lighting manufacturer in Blackburn has been fined after an employee was fatally injured when the forklift truck he was driving struck an overhead steel beam. An employee was operating a forklift truck to move pallets at the company premises in Witton Business Park, Blackburn, when the mast of the forklift truck hit a low overhead structural beam, which caused the truck to overturn, Preston Magistrates’ Court heard. The employee was trapped underneath the roll cage and received fatal crush injuries. The incident happened on 14 June 2019.
Read MoreEngineering company fined after employee scalped
An engineering company has been fined after one of its employees suffered scalping injuries when her hair became entangled in a pillar drill. Coventry Magistrates’ Court heard how on 10 September 2019, a P&D Engineering Limited employee suffered life changing injuries when her scalp and part of her ear were torn off after her ponytail became wrapped around a rotating drill.
Read MorePrincipal contractor fined after worker suffered electrical burns
A vertical farming, glasshouses and energy company has been sentenced after a worker came into contact with an 11kV overhead power line.Beverley Magistrates’ Court heard that on 3 December 2018, a subcontractor scaffolding worker was unloading some scaffolding poles near power cables in Willerby, Hull, when one of the poles caught the overhead line.
Read MoreRoofer and scaffolder sentenced following fatal fall from height
A roofer and a scaffolder have been sentenced following a fatal fall from height at a two-storey terraced house on Rosevine Road, Wimbledon. Southwark Crown Court heard that on 26 November 2018, Philip Drinkwater and Anthony Bradley were working on the roof, which was accessed using a ladder and scaffolding that had been erected by Dean Glen.
Read MoreFine after maintenance fitter dies in fall from height
A forging company has been fined after an employee suffered a fatal injury when he fell from height from a mobile tower scaffold. A Stokes Group Limited employee George Clifford was fatally injured at the company site on Cochrane Road, Dudley, West Midlands, after falling from a tower scaffold whilst dismantling a Eumuco 2000 Tonne Forging Press, Dudley Magistrates’ Court was told. The incident happened on 19 June 2019.
Read MoreStaying COVID-secure notice
The requirement to dispaly the "Staying COVID-secure" poster at your premises to demonstrate that you have made your workplace COVID-secure has been withdrawn - in effect from 19th July 2021.
Read MoreVue cinemas prosecuted over seat crush death
A major cinema chain has been ordered to pay £750,000 after a customer died after getting trapped under a faulty chair. Vue Entertainment, which has sites 91 sites across the UK and Ireland, was also ordered to pay £130,000 in prosecution costs. On 9 March 2018, Ateeq Rafiq visited Birmingham's Star City cinema with his wife. After watching a movie, the 24-year-old reached down to search for his keys and mobile phone when his neck became trapped by a motorised footrest on the chair.
Read MoreDo staff have to self-isolate if they’ve been pinged by the NHS Covid app?
Thousands of people are having to self-isolate having been pinged by the NHS Covid-19 app. Being pinged by the NHS Covid-19 app is entirely different being asked to isolate from NHS test and trace system. If you are asked to self-isolate by NHS test and trace it is a legal requirement. If you are pinged by the NHS Covid-19 app at the moment it is just guidance. You are advised but not legally obliged to self-isolate for 10 days, which means that that if an employer cannot requiree you to necessarily self-isolate, They can ask you to come into work. But then the employer has to bear in mind their obligations and duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Read MoreFigures show agriculture remains the worst performing industrial sector
HSE has today published a report detailing that agriculture has the worst rate of fatal injuries of all the major industrial sectors, around 20 times higher than the average five-year annual rate across all industries. Provisional figures from 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2021 show 41 people were killed in agriculture related activities, almost double the number of deaths in the previous year, which was 23.
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