A food manufacturing company has been sentenced after repeated failures to maintain safety devices on its food processing machinery.

South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard that on three separate occasions between July 2008 and March 2016, HSE inspectors visiting the premises of Coldconnection Limited found multiple food processing machines that had non-functional or defeated interlock safety devices. Notices were served on each occasion, requiring the company to remedy the defects, but on a fourth visit in August 2019, the same issues were found again.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the firm due to the repeated contraventions relating to these safety devices and the failure to maintain improvements.

Coldconnection Limited of Bladen Street Ind Est, Jarrow, Tyne And Wear pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 (3)(c) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £928 costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Stephen Garner said: “While HSE would prefer to engage with businesses proactively through alternative enforcement tools, we can and will bring action through the courts where businesses are found to put their employees at unnecessary risk through repeated contraventions of health and safety law.”

Notes to editors
1. 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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk
4. Further information about health and safety in food and drink manufacturing can be found at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg252.pdf

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A manufacturer of thermal and acoustic insulation panels has been fined after a worker’s hand was severed in a roller press at their site in Burton-on-Trent.

Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court heard that on 7 August 2018, a worker’s hand got drawn into a roller press used for cutting out panels, along with product he was working on at Crown Industrial Estate, Anglesey Road, Burton on Trent. The press was fitted with a guard and interlocking trips which, should have prevented this incident.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the guarding on the roller press involved in the incident and two other presses at the company was inadequate and there were no checks being carried out to make sure that the guards and protective devices (interlocks) were functioning as designed. The interlock trips were not working.

Custom Insulation Ltd of Crown Industrial Estate, Anglesey Road, Burton on Trent, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety Act 1974. The company has been fined £16,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,633.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE principal inspector, Lyn Spooner said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply identifying control measures and safe working practices and having systems in place to monitor their continued effective operation.

“Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”

Notes to Editors:

1. 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
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk
4. Information about machinery guarding and inspection can be found at Inspection of work equipment – Work equipment and machinery (hse.gov.uk)

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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.

Preston Magistrates’ Court heard that on 14 June 2019, the 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. The employee was trapped underneath the roll cage and received fatal crush injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the traffic routes on site required forklift trucks to travel under a number of overhead structural beams which only had a small clearance gap between the mast of the trucks at their lowest setting and the beams. There were no hazard markings to highlight these overhead obstructions.

MK Illumination (UK) Ltd of Witton Business Park, Preston Old Road, Blackburn, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £53,360 and ordered to pay costs of £7,880.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Anthony Banks said: “The company’s system of work was not safe. With the forklift trucks operating within such tight margins, the company simply relied on the assumption it’s employees would always remember to lower the forks to their lowest position whilst travelling underneath the overhead beams.

“MK Illumination (UK) Ltd not only failed to physically mark the overhead beams in a conspicuous way to provide the forklift truck operators with a prominent warning of the limited headroom, but the company also failed to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the traffic routes. When this was done after the incident, the revised traffic routes avoided the low overhead beams altogether.”

Notes to Editors:
1. 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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk

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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today published a report detailing that agriculture has the highest number of workplace fatalities in Great Britain.

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.

The report, Fatal injuries in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Great Britain 2020/21, has been published to coincide with the start of Farm Safety Week (19 – 23 July). The report shows that agriculture continues to have 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.

While the number of people killed fluctuates each year, the five most common causes of fatal injuries over the last five years remain – being struck by moving vehicles, killed by an animal, struck by an object, falling from height and contact with moving machinery.

Transport-related incidents, such as overturning vehicles or being struck by moving vehicles were responsible for more deaths than any other cause.

Older workers are most at risk, with more than half of workers killed aged 60 years or older. When comparing older and younger age groups, the fatal injury rate is more than four times higher for the 65s and over, compared to the 16-24 age group. The youngest person killed was a two-year-old child who died after being overcome by slurry fumes.

Acting head of agriculture at HSE Adrian Hodkinson said: “Agriculture is a vital part of our economy and everyone involved is rightly proud of the quality and standard of the food produced.

“It is not acceptable that agriculture continues to fail to manage risk in the workplace. We need everyone to play their part to improve their behaviour, do things the right way and ‘call out’ poor practices whenever they are seen.

“Agriculture will continue to be a priority sector for HSE, which will be achieved through the delivery of HSE’s sector plan for tackling the high rates of injury and ill health.”

He added: “It is disappointing to be highlighting another high annual fatality rate in the industry when the causes are well known and the precautions to avoid injury are straightforward.

“There are simple safety measures people should follow to reduce injury like remembering to put on handbrakes, fasten lap belts in cabs, make sure anyone operating a quad bike wears a helmet and receives sufficient training, don’t put cows and calves in fields with public footpaths; and make sure to switch off the power to vehicles or machinery before attempting to carry out repairs.”

The full report and more information on working safely in agriculture is available on the HSE website. HSE’s plan for tackling the high rates of injury and ill health is available here: Sector plan for health and safety in the agriculture.

Farm safety week, which shines a light on safety in the sector, is led by the Farm Safety Foundation.

Notes to editors

1. 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.

2. The report highlights trends and provides summaries of each fatality involving employees, the self-employed and members of the public. The full report along with summaries of the circumstances of the individual fatal injuries can be read at https://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/resources/fatal.htm

3. Farm Safety Week is an initiative led by the Farm Safety Foundation and supported by the Farm Safety Partnerships, The Health and Safety Executive, Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland and the Health & Safety Authority, Ireland.

4. HSE continues to work with stakeholders across the farming and forestry sector to keep up the pressure to manage risk in the workplace to reduce the likelihood of serious injury, ill health and death. In relation to our response to Covid-19, this includes working with others e.g. public health authorities and government departments.

5. For information on how to stay healthy and safe in agriculture see HSE guidance What a good farm looks like – Agriculture (hse.gov.uk) and Farmwise: Your essential guide to health and safety in agriculture (hse.gov.uk)

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An asbestos removal company has been fined after a worker fell off a garage roof and fractured a vertebrae bone in his back.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that, on 15 August 2017, whilst replacing a garage roof at a domestic property in lnverurie, David Ross an employee of NJS (Scotland) Limited, fell approximately two metres through the roof whilst removing bolts, resulting in a back injury.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that NJS (Scotland) Limited failed to provide a suitable work platform from which to work to prevent employees falling from or through the roof of the garage. The Company ought to have been able to anticipate and solve the challenges presented by a double skinned roof given their extensive experience of working at height including roof dismantling and replacement, its health and safety procedures manual and its equipment such as a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP), crawl boards and fall arrest harnesses, which the operatives were appropriately trained and certified to use. The HSE inspector considered that the company was complacent in its approach to this much smaller scale domestic job. There would normally be a pre job toolbox talk and all operatives would be required to sign that they had received and understood the plan of work before the job began, but that did not happen on this occasion.

NJS (Scotland) Limited of Pinefield Parade, Pinefield Industrial Estate, Elgin pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and were fined £8,000.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Elizabeth Hunter said: “Falls from height remain one of the most common causes of work-related fatalities in this country and the risks associated with working at height are well known.”

Notes to Editors:
1. 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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk

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