Health and Safety News

A hearing for the case that happened at Warwickshire was held in opposition to three fire chiefs. This case was at Warwick Crown Court in connection with the murder charges for four fire personnel who died in a fire that took place in Atherstone-on-Stour’s warehouse. This happened in the month of November in the year 2007.

This was needed for the appeal to be filed.

BBC went on to report that three Timothy Woodward, the station manager and Paul Simmons and Adrian Ashley the watch managers were released on bail. The next hearing will be held at Stafford Crown Court.

The Associate and Solicitor-Advocate whose name is Paul Verrico, at Eversheds which is a law firm stated that this case will certainly let the public know of the real thing wherein 13 firemen and service managers were in police custody.

This case has been long pending and was only settled in the year 2011. Finally, the CPS declared that the three fire chiefs namely Paul Simmons, Adrian Ashley and Timothy Woodward were at fault and this is one point that should be noted. This one verdict has taken too long.

An inquest of this type has to have a lot of time invested in it if a thorough job needs to be done. The tragedy that struck at Atherstone in the year 2007 needed great deal of groundwork and analyzing. Ultimately, the police were able to gather enough evidence and the CPS declared the three chiefs guilty. This was such a relief for the families of those who had lost their lives and the ones who stood the trial.

A company whose main business was salmon farming was prosecuted and had to pay a fine of £70,000. This was after worker lost his life by drowning on the Isle of Lewis in Loch Heather.

Peter Kenneth Duce, of 61 years was the employee who drowned. He was in a boat on 26 February 2008 with other four colleagues. This was when the water rushed into the boat when they were out checking the fish cages.

The HSE after an inspection came to the conclusion that evaluations criteria made by West Minch Salmon Ltd were not thorough. They should have especially done that for workers who went to check on the fish cages. Also, the company did not make enough of an effort to make sure that correct in use instructions on boat safely for this kind of work. The boat had been loaded more than the allowed limit. In addition, they did not pay any heed to the manufacturer’s advice that stated about not carrying more than three people on board.

HSE’s looked carefully at the buoyancy equipment given to the organization but noticed that this was not used adequately. Also, the company did not communicate effectively to the staff and this led to confusion.

Ann Poyner who is the HSE Inspector said that West Minch Salmon Ltd even after the court order could have worked on the lessening of the risk factors by looking at the assessment criteria carefully. This would have allowed them to get a larger boar for employees working on the fish cages. This would have saved an employees’ life if the right measures had been taken and applied. This would have never caused the boat to get flooded and subside.
At Stornoway Sheriff Court, this week, the company West Minch Salmon Limited was forced pay up £70,000. This was due to the breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The national accident rates are estimated at around 750 persons killed per year and more than 8000 being seriously injured, either on the road or on the way to or from work. The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) have benchmarked the United Kingdom’s largest energy suppliers, British Gas and urge other companies with large fleets to take up road safety programs.

British Gas shells out close to £7 million on vehicle damages and £14 million on fuel costs as do many similar companies. With their large fleet of over 15,000 vehicles of various classes on the road, they have an incident rate of 0.283 compared to the industry average of 0.46. Recently, British Gas announced a huge savings of £2 million after introducing a 5-year road safety programme in the company. Applicable to both company drivers and car owners, driving and maintenance skills were imparted to the employees. Implemented by the IOSH, the programme aimed at honing a safe driving culture into the employees to reduce incident statistics.

Safety measures introduced include stringent license checking both for driving staff as well as car owners and the introduction of electronic driver license checks. Attention was paid to staff newly taken in for risk assessment with special emphasis on youth! Measures in fuel monitoring and speed limiters to save on fuel were put into effect and incident analysis periodically done.

The programme yielded a 30% reduction in road accidents after which the IOSH has been gunning to enlist other companies with similar large fleets.

In relation to a major incident involving an uncontrollable chemical reaction that occurred at Thor Specialities (UK) Ltd chemical factory in Cheshire, the company appeared at the Chester Crown Court recently. HSE brought the chemical manufacturing firm to Court for endangering the people working there to the dangers of the uncontrolled chemical reaction and its poisonous gas discharge.

The chemical manufacturing firm is a major hazard site and a Top Tier location, which regulated under the Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1999. Hence, it is the obligation of the chemical provider to thwart any major incidents from arising and if it does occur then they should take all needed control actions to limit its bearing on the community and the surroundings.

The Chester Crown Court heard that the accident that occurred on August 23, 2007 could have gravely injured the workers at the factory if they were present at the time of the accident. The accident occurred due to the blunder of an employee who added more than the specified quantity of solid chemical to a container containing a liquid compound, when it failed to produce a reaction. He mistakenly expected that increasing the amount of solid compound would start the reaction. However, the reaction speedily grew into an unrestrained chemical reaction that had not controlled. This reaction was very swift, discharging and filling the production area with deadly, combustible fumes. Though no person was present at the time of the accident and its released offshoots at the production area, an employee did return to check what had transpired for the alarm to ring. However, he soon ran out of the spot due to the suffocating fumes all around.

An inquiry by the HSE subsequent to the incident revealed that the firm based in Wincham, Northwick had majorly erred in not evaluating the risks associated with the chemical reaction. The firm also did not confirm that following the incident, adequate control procedures taken. Apart from this, the employee also found to have not received sufficient training and directions. Since his superiors also not properly supervised him, he could not recognize the danger associated with raising the quantity of the chemical.

‘Reforming Regulation: One Year On’, a report by EEF, the manufacturers’ organization analysing the government’s contemporary actions in restructuring the protocols was published recently. EEF in their latest report has credited the government in making major developments in a number of areas, but has stated that some of the modifications are irresolute.

EEF has recommended the UK government to step up their energies towards decreasing the number of burdensome regulations that are avoidable and thereby aid businesses in their effectual functioning and growth. EEF stated through their report that manufacturers’ are until now being weighed down by the liability to follow rules, some of which are problematic and can be totally avoided. Even they are looking forward to the Government to make key changes that will reduce this burden. The EEF wishes that the Government apart from lessening certain meaningless policies also restricted the invasion of avoidable rules that are heading from Europe. For this, the manufacturers’ organization has advised the Government to do more and head in pushing for cutting down the number of needless policies than piling up more, which is the present state in Europe. EEF has emphasized this by referring to some problematic policies introduced in Europe like the Pregnant Workers Directive and the Working Time Directive.

However, the manufacturers’ organization has also appreciated the Government in their endeavour of making some constructive changes including the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), which was set up for a stricter investigation into new rules. The One-In One-Out methodology and efforts to review occupation and health and safety related rules instead of singling out them for study are also valuable. EEF also stated in the report that they will be keenly observing the improvements made in certain work-related areas like extension of employees’ right to flexible work arrangement, parental leave and reviews of similar pay.

EEF Director of Policy, Steve Radley remarked about the Government’s plans of cutting down the number of policies to be quite constructive and their methodology having the possibility to accomplish it. Businesses are also looking forward for the Government’s plans to be effective. Adding further he stated that the Government’s plans to introduce the newly changed national pension savings scheme next year is quite appreciable, however the Government requires to make definite strategies to lessen the load of new rules on firms.

The owners of Hinds Head pub were recently declared guilty by the Court and fined for failing to purchase a mandatory employers’ insurance that is necessary to cover their employees in case of injury or sickness.

The South Ribble Magistrates’ Court was informed that the Hinds Head pub located in Charnock Richard in the market town of Chorley was owned by Stephen and Karen Martin from Dudleston Heath, Ellesmere in Shropshire. They had engaged a manager, cook, helper and waiters to run the pub. However, they conveniently chose not to purchase the Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance, which is needed to compensate employees in case they fall terribly ill or are injured at their place of work.

The HSE inspectors had reminded and advised both the owners to purchase the necessary insurance, a number of times between the five-month periods of September 2010 to February 2011. However, both of them chose to overlook the advice. The HSE had no alternative left but to sue Stephen and Karen Martin for not buying the required insurance despite being reminded to do so many times.

The Court in Leyland considered all the points before declaring both of them guilty to violating 3 rules under Section 1(1) of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 by not protecting their staffs’ against any possible sickness or injury suffered at work. However, both Stephen and Karen Martin did not appear for the trial. Subsequently on 23rd September 2011, the Court penalized each of them with £1,200 plus £2,620 as prosecution charges. The duo presently does not manage the Hinds Head pub.

Investigating inspector at HSE, Shellie Bee commented that procuring the Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance is a mandatory and legal duty of every firm, which cannot be discounted. However, in this case Stephen and Karen Martin had intentionally not purchased the insurance to save their money. By doing so, they were risking their staffs to monetary loss, resulting due to no recompense awarded to them because of the duo not buying insurance to protect their staff in case of them developing serious sickness or injury at work. Moreover, both the owners were reminded again and again to rectify their mistake and buy the insurance, which they chose to ignore. The HSE hence had to take them to Court.

Attendant’s careless attitude could have cost the girl her life as she fell head first on the ground from a height of four meters.

This incident took place at the popular Copmanthorpe Carnival, when the teenage girl went on the ‘Cliff-hanger Miami Trip’ ride and fell after the safety bar opened. The person who has been held responsible is a 28-year-old attendant, Terry Reynolds, as he failed to ensure that the bar was locked properly.

The ride generally involves a group of 16 people. It goes up, down and even spins at a high speed. The girl along with her friends went for this fun ride but unfortunately, for her the safety bar opened as soon as the ride started. The girl slipped and fell on the ground but luckily for her only minor bruises and a few abrasions was to be suffered.

The HSE probed further into the case and found that the incident could have been avoided had Mr. Reynolds taken care to lock the seat properly. It mentioned that there had been a couple of similar incidents before this one where the same bar had opened but no one fell as they caught hold of the bar.

The HSE inspector added that if Terry would not have been careless the girl could have been saved from injuries. He had a crucial job in the whole process, but he had a devil-may-care attitude, which could have led to a fatal accident as well.

Alan White has set out to bring a change in the health conditions and the problems faced by men across Europe. In a report published by the European Commission, concerns over increasing numbers of health problems and the factors that lead to it have been discussed to inform most of the health professionals and policy makers.

A study based on men from over 34 countries in Europe points out that most of the men due to common factors like poor lifestyles and work related risk suffer from health problems. These factors however are the kinds that can be prevented and avoided in a big way with the help of a few policies and precautionary measures.

The concerns are biased towards men only because of the increasing number of accidents involving them. Countries like Italy and Germany are the ones reporting a high number of fatal accidents. The industries involved are construction, manufacturing, transport, storage and communication.

Construction and manufacturing play a role in reporting non-fatal accidents as well, which mostly involve men.

The other issue concerning men that was raised was about the reducing numbers of birth rates, which imply that in a couple of decades the number of men working across EU-27 will reduce by a great extent. However, on the bright side they continue to live long.

The study also suggests that such accidents can be prevented with the help of a few policies. Men are prone to such accidents only because unlike women, they tend to ignore their health conditions and neglect health check ups.

Changes in Work Related Deaths Protocol aim to rectify the defects in the legal procedure and wish to increase the pace of the proceedings.

Currently no charges can be made when it comes to health and safety related offences before a legal inquiry is completed. The highlight of the process is that it will change this procedure and making charges before the inquiry would be made possible.

A committee that will administer the change includes the police, the Health and Safety Executive, the Local Government Association and representatives of the Crown Prosecution Service. It is known as the National Liaison Committee.

The union points out that due to the delay in the proceedings the firms are able to escape the conviction as they create a new firm working on the previous company’s principal under a different name. They stress on the fact that the introduction of statutory director duties would help in convicting the firm in a better and an effective way. It ensures that the director of the firm, which is guilty of the fatal accident, would be held and a custodial sentence could be passed against him.

UCATT explains the need for a better judicial procedure as the reports suggest that only a mere 30% cases have resulted with convicting the firms out of the many that are still pending. The HSE learnt that there are many incidents where the death of the worker was a result of the poor functioning of the management but the proceedings of many are yet to result in the conviction of the firm. They also disapprove of the measly fine of a few thousand pounds charged as a conviction.

Pregnancy and diabetes being the most common health issues at work have now been added to the range of other topics covered by the Occupational Health Toolkit.

The Executive Director of Policy at IOSH mentioned that these two topics have been added to the new segment of the kit. He explained that the service team is constantly engaged in research to keep their information in line with the modern times.

Dr. Luise added that every topic comes with fact sheets, training materials and case studies to make it easier for its users. Hence, the kit proves to be a good source of information for companies and staff who otherwise get confused, as there is a lot of information provided.

He looked back at the time when IOSH’s OH Toolkit had started in 2007; it was praised for its feasibility by the Government’s Director of health and work. They considered Dame Carol’s suggestion of adding more information like health issues that are not related to work. This made it the user friendliest kit for health related guidance, also the most effective one at that.

In a couple of months they plan to add a new segment dedicated to work related cancers and provide more information on health related issues that are not concerned with work so that its users can gain more out of it.