Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Legionnaires' disease outbreak in summer 2012 was a worrying time for Edinburgh residents, mainly due to the lack of information given by local authorities at the time. Four people died and there were 56 confirmed cases, making it the worst Legionnaires' outbreak in a decade.

NHS Lothian's Incident Management Team published a report into the incident this week, which said that since the outbreak, 'the City of Edinburgh Council's Food Health and Safety Service has enhanced its ability to inspect risk systems and its capability to respond to Legionella outbreaks'.

The NHS Lothian Report

Neither the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) nor the Incident Management Team at NHS Lothian have been able to identify the source of the outbreak. The NHS summarised the outcome of the investigation as follows:

Last week, managing and minimizing the number of accidents, which occur in the aviation industry, was the focus of Cambridge-based event, hosted by IOSH's Aviation and Aerospace Group.

Aviation experts met at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford to share knowledge, experiences as well as lessons learnt and the best practices identified following previous aviation incidents, such as Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps.

With the aim being to improve the safety of those working in supply chain factories, which are commonplace in the fashion industry, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has teamed up with Fashion Revolution and politicians.

The collaboration, which took place of 29 June 2015, involved looking at projects that has been setup to improve worker-safety, following the 2013 tragedy in Rana Plaz, Bangladesh, in which 1,100 people died following the collapse of a supply factory.

Concerning new statistics - released by Transport Scotland - show that both the number of deaths and the number of persons seriously injured, on Scotland's roads, increased last year.

In particular, between 2013 an 2014, the number of persons who died in road traffic accidents across Scotland, increased by sixteen per cent (16%) to two hundred (200), while the number of serious injuries increased by one per cent (1%) 1,694.

Following today’s determination by Lord Brailsford at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Mr Phee said: “I am delighted at the judgment and relieved that the court case is over.

“No-one expects to lose an eye when they go to play golf and adjusting to partially losing my sight has been a harrowing experience. I now just want to move on with my life.

“I would like to thank my legal team for their support and consideration throughout this long and distressing ordeal.”