Reinforcing EU legislation on health and safety at work
A recent resolution passed by the European Parliament has called for new technologies to be covered by current EU health and safety rules. The resolution notes that every year, 168,000 EU citizens die from work-related accidents or diseases and seven million are injured in accidents. The potential risks of new technologies and harmful substances must […]
Health and safety law reforms
The Government has announced plans to begin a major cut back of health and safety legislation as early as January. It will begin an immediate consultation on the abolition of large numbers of health and safety regulations and intends to have removed the first rules from the statute book within a few months. It will […]
Firm fined after reversing lorry crushes worker
A Dartford firm has been fined after an employee was seriously injured when he was crushed by a reversing lorry at the KBC Logistics depot in Essex. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told Basildon Magistrates’ Court that driver Leslaw Chorazak, 54, was waiting to take his place at the wheel of the articulated […]
Two thirds of Scottish workplace deaths in agriculture
Nearly two thirds of Scots killed at work last year worked in agriculture, analysis of figures published earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have shown. Of the fifteen workplace fatalities that occurred between April 2010 and March 2011, nine were in agriculture. Across Great Britain, the five year average rate of […]
Glasgow demolition worker fatally injured
Whiteinch Demolition Limited, a Glasgow demolition contractor, has been fined after a worker was killed when a weight from a face shovel machine fell on him. On 12 May 2008 Bernard McCarroll, aged 68 years from Croy, was dismantling a hydraulic excavator at the company’s yard in Glasgow by the process known as burning, using […]
Worker crushed between two skips
An Ayr recycling company was fined £80,000 after a worker was severely injured when he was crushed between two skips. Steven Graham was standing in between two skips at a recycling centre run by Lowmac Alloys Ltd when a shovel loader weighing more than 18 tonnes hit one of the skips, pushing it towards the […]
Health and safety review risks injury to workers
Workers could be exposed to unnecessary risk of injury if Britain’s health and safety regulations are watered down, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has warned. APIL has spoken out after it responded to the Department for Work and Pensions’ review of health and safety legislation. APIL vice-president Karl Tonks said: “Any assault on […]
HSE consults on cost recovery scheme
Details have been published on the operation of a new system for recovering costs from those who break health and safety laws. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has opened a three-month consultation on how cost recovery for intervention will operate, having already agreed the underlying principle with Government. The new scheme could apply from […]
Companies fined for double fish farm deaths
Two companies have been fined a total of £640,000 following the death of two fish farm workers on a barge moored at a salmon farm on Loch Creran, Argyll & Bute. Scottish Sea Farms worker, Campbell Files and engineer Arthur Raikes – employed by Logan Inglis Limited, Cumbernauld – were fixing a hydraulic crane on […]
Council fined after girl trapped in swimming pool
Castle Point Borough Council has been fined following an incident where a seven-year old girl was trapped by a water outlet at a swimming pool. The girl was using the swimming pool with her great grandfather in May 2009. Her hair was sucked into the water sampling outlet on the side of the pool, trapping […]