A pallet-repair company operating in West Lothian has been fined £172,000 for health and safety failings which left a 22-year-old worker with severe injuries, impairment and permanently disfigured.  James Jones & Sons (Pallets and Packaging) Limited, which was operating at the Tesco Distribution Centre at Deans Industrial Estate, Livingston, pled guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

A company providing clinical waste management services has been fined after an 18-year-old employee sustained serious injuries while loading a bin conveyor.  The young man was working for SRCL Limited at its site in Oldham on 21 November 2024, when his foot slipped into an unguarded conveyor channel. He sustained several serious fractures to his right leg.

Two construction companies have been fined £79,300 after a scaffolder broke his arm, leg and suffered head lacerations after falling through a roof skylight while installing temporary scaffolding edge protection at a warehouse in Yorkshire.   James Cranswick, 26, was installing temporary scaffolding edge protection for Clover Access Systems Limited at a warehouse at Acre Mills in Keighley, West Yorkshire, when the incident took place. CCTV footage shows Mr Cranswick falling onto a pallet truck before landing on the warehouse floor.  

Two construction companies have been fined after a drilling operative sustained fractures to his neck and back when a temporary platform loaded with concrete debris collapsed on top of him.  Steve Zschoch, now 60, was working for contractors Diacutt Limited on 23 February 2024 at a construction project at Paxton House in the City of London. The refurbishment project, which was being run by principal contractor Roots Contractors Limited, involved cutting openings through five concrete floors to create a service riser shaft.

A biomass company in Glasgow has been fined a six-figure sum after a worker lost parts of three fingers in machinery at the Daldowie Fuel Plant.  The incident happened at SMW Limited’s site in Uddingston, near Glasgow, in 2023.

A road planing contractor in Leicestershire has been fined £92,450 after an employee’s leg became entangled in a road milling machine and had to be amputated.  On 14 February 2024, the 32-year-old employee, working for Power Plane Limited, was operating a road milling machine at Wade Road in Basingstoke. The operator’s foot became caught by the rotating milling drum, dragging him into the machine.

A poultry and egg production company has been convicted after a worker suffered serious nerve damage when his clothing became entangled in conveyor belt machinery at a farm near Banff.  On 15 October 2024, a 36-year-old man was working at Mains of Auchenbadie Farm during a routine cleaning operation.

A Hampshire-based company has been fined after a roofer suffered life‑changing injuries when he fell through an unprotected loft hatch while carrying out work on a domestic property in Wimbledon.  Mark Smith had been working for Willow Services (Southern) Limited on 13 May 2024, where he was re‑roofing the house. The 41-year-old had been stripping out internal insulation within the roof space, when he stepped onto an unguarded loft hatch which had not been identified or protected.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today announced a major package of measures to protect workers from the dangers of engineered stone dust, including silicosis, a deadly-but-preventable lung disease caused by breathing in silica dust released during stone cutting.    

Andy Hazelden, 60, was employed by MM Flowers Limited at its Alconbury Weald site when the incident occurred on 4 February 2023. He had been assisting colleagues with the manual unloading of cargo from a delivery trailer during a busy period in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.