Westminster Compliance

A  28 year old scaffolder fell seven metres through a roof and shattered his thigh bone, bruised his lungs, broke both wrists, broke two vertebrae and cracked another when installing scaffolding at a factory when he fell through a fragile roof.

He was in hospital for six weeks and will never be able to carry out any manual work again as his injuries have left him with considerable pain in his left leg and extremely weak wrists, which will require further surgery.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident found the company did not prepare or survey the job properly at the outset and failed to supervise or train its employees adequately.

The Scaffold Company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 costs.

A firm has recently been fined after handing over unsecured scaffolding to a client, putting builders at risk.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the site where building repairs and external work were being carried out.

The inspector noted that the scaffolding erected around the building had not been adequately tied, meaning it was unstable.

By law, all scaffolding must be inspected by a competent person before it can be used.

The local Magistrates’ Court was told the worker who undertook safety checks, had been previously been advised of the need to adequately tie scaffolding but had overlooked this advice. He was also fined.

The scaffolding company was found guilty and fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 in costs, whilst the worker who undertook the safety checks pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007  and was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,274 costs.

Don’t forget the importance of carrying out safety checks and making sure these are undertaken by a competent person.

In recent news an employee of a bread company was working alone in the storeroom when his colleagues heard a loud bang. They rushed into the room, and found him lying on the floor, bleeding from a severe head wound, with the stepladder next to him. He was taken to hospital but died several weeks later from his injuries.

The employer and the site manager admitted failing to provide a safe method of work.

HSE inspectors visited the bakery the day after the incident and found that the ladder was in a poor condition, as its stiles were bent and damaged. Their investigation also found that no risk assessments had been carried out for any work at the site. They issued a Prohibition Notice, requiring no further work at height to be undertaken at the site until a safe system of work had been created, and suitable equipment had been provided.

Both the employer and site manager appeared in court and both were fined with separate breaches of sections of HSWA 1974.

From 1st September to 30th November, if you have a ladder which is broken damaged or bent, you can part- exchange it for a safe new one at any of HSE’s partner companies.

Since it’s launch – the HSE have removed over 8,000 dodgy ladders from the workplace. What are you waiting for???!!