- Twenty-two inspectors inspected 71 business in Sheffield and Rotherham.
- 65 % of business inspected were found to be in some form of breach of health and safety law.
- Inspectors served three prohibition notices, 31 improvement notices and a further 23 companies were written to.
With its South Yorkshire inspection campaign drawing to its conclusion the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found 65 per cent of business to be some form of breach of the law.
Last week 22 inspectors from HSE’s Yorkshire and North East Field Operations teams inspected 71 businesses in the Sheffield and Rotherham area. Of those visited 46 companies needed to make improvements to better protect the health, safety and wellbeing of workers in metal fabrication, engineering, general manufacturing and waste and recycling sectors
During the course of the week inspectors served three prohibition notices and 31 improvement notices. Examples of some of the breaches found included poor controls of welding fumes and metal working fluids.
In addition to where notices have been served, HSE has formally written to a further 23 local businesses to compel them to improve various aspects of health and safety.
Andrew Denison, Acting Head of Operations said: “Protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of workers is of paramount importance and at the heart of what we do.
The high proportion of breaches identified during this initiative indicates that the risks were not being adequately controlled.
Inspectors’ have taken robust proportionate action to deal with serious risks and to ensure companies are complying with the law.
I hope businesses will take note and understand that they will be held to account if they fail in their responsibilities.
Notes to Editors:
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk
- More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/
- HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk
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