Health and Safety News

Commons defeat leaves flat owners facing huge bills to fix cladding

Amendment to fire safety bill could have spared leaseholders costs of up to £100,000 to make their homes safe. A plan to protect leaseholders from the spiralling costs of fixing fire safety problems in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster has been rejected in parliament after the government headed off a cross-party challenge.

Human behaviour: Rule following and risk perception

Group Health and Safety Manager, Joe Smith, tries to get to the bottom of why people do, or don’t, follow the rules and why it takes supervision or disciplinary action before some toe the line and work safely all of the time. My greatest challenge (and perhaps every other practitioner’s challenge) is getting people to follow rules. I get there in the end using the full toolbox of coaching, instructing, cajoling, bribing, disciplining. Whatever is appropriate for that person.

Bristol pub fined £132,000 for breaking health and safety rules

A microbrewery in Bristol has been convicted after breaking health and safety regulations which led to a fire in 2018. Avon Fire and Rescue prosecuted the Brewhouse and Kitchen after it was found the pub did not have suitable and sufficient measures in place to reduce risk and spread of fire at its premises in Cotham Hill.

Construction firms fined due to unsafe removal of asbestos

A construction company and a property management company have both been fined after failing to manage asbestos safely during a refurbishment of a former office block in Stockport.Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how Samer Constructions Limited had been contracted by Swift Property Management MCR Ltd to refurbish the property in Hazel Grove, Stockport.

Investigation after man dies at Basingstoke building site

The health and safety executive (HSE) has launched an investigation after a man died at a building site in Basingstoke yesterday. An inspector has visited the site and is working with Hampshire Constabulary into the investigation. The worker passed away after injuring himself at a building site on Wiltshire Crescent yesterday morning.

Construction company and plastering firm fined after employee falls from height

Two companies have been fined after a worker sustained serious injuries by falling approximately three metres through a hole cut into a floor during the refurbishment of a property at in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard how on 27 July 2017, an employee was working as a dry liner for R&B Plastering Limited, who were contracted on the site to Robert Norman Construction Limited, the Principal Contractor (PC).

Covid: HSE refuses to close workplaces that are putting employees at risk

The government’s health and safety watchdog has failed to shut down any workplaces that put employees at risk of coronavirus even though there have been over 3,500 outbreaks at work since the start of the pandemic, the Observer has discovered. Analysis of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) enforcement database reveals there have been no Covid-related prohibition notices, which allow inspectors to immediately halt activity in workplaces deemed injurious or damaging to health, since last March.

Company fined after workers injured in forklift truck crash

A carpet sample book manufacturer has been fined after two workers were seriously injured in an incident where a forklift truck crashed into an onsite refuse skip.Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how on 29 July 2019, three workers at Profile Patterns Limited had been emptying waste from plastic bins at their site in Wigan. They were using a forklift truck to raise the bins to a height that enabled a worker at either side of the truck to manually tip the bins into a skip.

Worker fell to his death through fragile asbestos roof

A roofer was fatally injured when he fell six metres whilst working on a replacement roof at a property in Kirkdale, Liverpool.Liverpool Crown Court heard how on 22 May 2017, the roofer was completing snagging work on a replacement roof. The worker had accessed a part of the old roof made of fragile asbestos cement sheets, which gave way.

Sentencing guideline: five years on

In the five years since the implementation of new court guidelines for sentencing health and safety offences, the average fine has tripled while prosecutions have halved. The Sentencing Council's Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences Definitive Guideline, which came into force on 1 February 2016, has seen the average fine handed out by courts increase from just over £54,000 in 2015-16 to more than £150,000 in 2018-19.