Company Fined for Edinburgh Warehouse Fall

A roofing company from Bristol has recently appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where it pled guilty to failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to its employees when working at heights after an employee fell through a roof light.

The incident happened in July last year at a warehouse in Gorgie Park Road, Edinburgh, where three employees of the roofing company were carrying out patch repairs on the flat roof of the vacant warehouse.

The case was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found that the risk assessment carried out was not appropriate for the task, and that the system of work was unsafe. The HSE concluded that the accident could have been avoided had reasonably practicable precautions been taken.

The company pled guilty to a breach of Regulation 4 of the Working At Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £10,000.

"This was an accident that resulted in severe injury to an employee and which could have been avoided if the appropriate protective measures had been in place at the time,” commented Gary Aitken, Head of the COPFS Health & Safety Division.

"Thankfully the employee has since made a full recovery and the company has introduced new risk assessments and has put into practice safe systems of work," he added.

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