A carpentry and joinery company has been fined after a man working unsecured on the forks of a fork-lift truck fell 3.5 metres to the ground.  On 14 June 2021, the man was working for Staircraft Group Limited at their head office site at Bayton Road Industrial Estate, Exhall, Coventry.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published the third edition of its free-to-order Fire safety in construction book, which includes an added focus on eliminating or reducing fire risks at the design stage.  The revised HSG168 publication, which is aimed at those responsible for procuring, designing, developing and managing construction sites, including clients and designers, explains how they can comply with their legal duties in relation to fire risks. 

In 2021 multiple concerns about unsafe work at a construction site in Irvine had been sent to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).  On 16th March 2021, two HSE inspectors attended the site and saw unsafe work at height taking place on a steel structure.  The inspectors tried to gain entry to the site, but the gates were locked.  They spoke to the person in control of the site, Baldev Singh Basra, but he refused to unlock the gates and let them in.  Despite explaining the powers to enter a premise given to HSE inspectors as part of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Singh Basra still refused entry to the site.

The Health & Safety Executive will fine companies that expose workers to hazardous excessive levels of vibrations. Yet the organisation’s own guidance doesn’t require businesses to continually monitor workers. Russ Langthorne of HAVSPRO considers why it’s time for real-time monitoring and measurement to be mandated in the regulations.

How weather is precred again.  The met Office has published advice to help you stay safe.

A range of advice to help you deal with severe weather. Tips and advice on how to stay safe, cool and healthy at home or outdoors.  All types of weather can affect you, those around you, and your property. Make sure you're prepared by checking our seasonal tips and advice. Find the latest articles here and scroll down for advice on travel, your home and health and wellbeing.

A civil engineering firm has been fined £600K for safety breaches after a seven-year-old child became trapped and suffocated on a construction site.  Seven-year-old Conley Thompson went missing from home on the morning of 26 July 2015 and was found the next morning by workers at the construction site at Bank End Road, Worsborough, in South Yorkshire.

A roofing boss has received a custodial sentence after one of his workers fell through a farm outbuilding roof. IOSH Magazine spoke to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Michael Griffiths about what happened.   On 7 July 2022, Redditch Magistrates Court sentenced Geoff Whitehouse, trading as Midland Roofing, to four months in prison after pleading guilty to breaches under section 1(1) of the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 and regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (as amended). The case came about after a labourer working for Mr Whitehouse fell through a farm outbuilding roof onto a concrete floor, sustaining life-changing injuries. 

Technology firm Dyson has been fined £1.2m after an employee sustained head and chest injuries when he was struck by a 1.5 tonne milling machine.   The worker at Dyson’s Wiltshire factory was hit while moving the machine, which fell on top of him.  He only escaped being crushed under the weight of the machine because it landed on two toolboxes and the handle of another machine. The incident happened on August 27, 2019.  

A mining company has been fined after two electricians suffered severe burns in separate incidents.  The owners of Boulby Mine in Saltburn-by-the-Sea were fined £3.6 million  and ordered to pay costs of £185,000 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

A building owner has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after an employee was left paralysed when a hoist platform he was working from plummeted from the third floor to ground level.  An employee of Mr Nicholas Devine was working at a premise on School Lane, Seaforth, Liverpool where a floor of the commercial building was being fitted out as a recording studio on 9 January 2017. This required repairing the timber frame around the lift shaft and rehanging the doors. When standing on the platform of the goods lift, it fell to the ground floor without any warning, causing serious spinal and head injuries to a worker that resulted in paralysis of the lower half of the body.