High street chocolate chain Thorntons has been fined after a worker broke her finger while operating a wrapping machine.

Ellen Yardley, 37, from Derbyshire was working at the company’s Somercotes plant on a foil wrapping machine, where chocolates were wrapped in foil and dispensed down a chute into a tray.

During a short break in production, while the machine was still running, Ms Yardley attempted to clean the inside of the output chute which had become covered in caramel. However, the cloth she was using became tangled in rotating parts which gripped the chocolates and her right hand was dragged into the machine.

Ms Yardley’s middle finger was fractured and cut, and she was off work for 10 weeks following the 17 November 2009 incident.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the machine had guarding installed but it was inadequate.

A subsequent audit of other machines in the factory found safety improvements were necessary to a range of machines, including preventing access to dangerous parts or repairs to existing safeguards.

Thorntons PLC, of Thornton Park, Somercotes, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Recently, Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court fined the company £20,000 and ordered it to pay full costs of £7,680.

After the hearing HSE inspector Stuart Parry said:

“Thorntons should never have allowed the machinery guarding to fall below the legal safety standards. It was effectively asking its employees to work on machines that put them at risk of injury.

“It was entirely foreseeable that the inadequate guarding could lead to injury and even if Ms Yardley had not used a cloth, her hand could still have been drawn into the machine while cleaning it.

“If the company had carried out an adequate risk assessment of its machinery, its workers would not have been put at risk and in Ms Yardley’s case painfully injured.”

In his most strident attack yet on health and safety David Cameron has pledged to cut back the “monster” he says it has become, free business from the “stranglehold” of red tape it creates, and reduce the “pointless time-wasting” it causes for the economy.

Speaking to an audience of small-business owners and entrepreneurs in Maidenhead Mr Cameron outlined the Government‟s plans to make it easier for them to cope with “the great big machine of health and safety that has built up over the years”. As well as cutting back rules and regulations, and examining the way in which they are enforced to ensure it is reasonable, specific steps he will take include:

• capping the amount lawyers can earn from personal-injury claims of up to £25,000 as a way of reducing overall costs in cases funded by „no win, no fee‟ deals. This, said the prime minister, would tackle the compensation culture, and address the fear from businesses of being sued for trivial, or excess claims;
• changing the law on strict liability in civil health and safety cases so that employers are no longer automatically at fault if something goes wrong. This stems from a recommendation by Prof Ragnar Löfstedt in his review published last November, in which he called for a review of all strict-liability offences by June 2013; and
• investigating the demands made by insurance companies to ensure that levels of compliance do not force businesses to go far beyond what is actually required by law to secure their insurance cover.

According to Mr Cameron, these are the first steps in the “war” he intends to wage against the “excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses”.

He concluded: “So this coalition has a clear New Year‟s resolution: to kill off the health and safety culture for good. I want 2012 to go down in history not just as Olympics year or Diamond Jubilee year, but the year we get a lot of this pointless time-wasting out of the British economy and British life once and for all.”

IOSH was “appalled” at the prime minister‟s “unhelpful” comments, pointing out that the reason the health and safety legislative system exists is to prevent death, injury, or illness at work, and protect livelihoods in the process.

The Institution‟s head of policy and public affairs, Richard Jones, added: “The problem identified by the Government‟s own reviews is not the law, but rather exaggerated fear of being sued, fed by aggressive marketing.”

“Though we‟re about to see lots of streamlining and merging of regulations, which we welcome, it is important people understand that the essential duties will remain. It‟s also vital that the review process isn‟t unduly rushed, which could lead to mistakes and lowered standards – we‟re concerned the timeline seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

“And we‟d reiterate that only simplification of the laws is necessary. It‟s difficult to see how the Government will reduce the number by half without increasing the risk of injury and ill health not just to workers, but the general public.”

The Hazards Campaign branded the prime minister‟s comments “disgraceful”. A spokesperson said: “Here we go again! Rather than facing up to the real problems employers cause in their failure to manage workplace health and safety the Tories choose to look the other way – again – as ever!

“The truly disgraceful part of all of this is the focus on so-called burdens on business while totally ignoring the burden on people at work who are injured, made unwell, disabled and killed.”

The Association of British Insurers welcomed the opportunity to meet the Government to discuss the issues further. Director-general Otto Thoresen said: “Insurers have a key role to play in helping firms manage health and safety. We have produced guidance for firms that dispels any myths around onerous insurance requirements so that they can manage their risks in a sensible and proportionate way, without the constant fear of being sued.”

However, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers expressed “grave concerns” over the Prime Minister’s announcement. Its president, David Bott, said: “The danger is that workers could be exposed to an unnecessary risk of injury and then be left with a civil justice system which cuts them off from their right to full and fair redress.

“Instead of watering down the rules, which are designed to protect workers, businesses should be made to feel confident in the knowledge they have nothing to fear from litigation provided they take reasonable steps to prevent needless injury. Any fear businesses have should be for the welfare of their staff, not legal costs.”

Comments from Joe Mead – Managing Director
Capita Symonds Health & Safety and Environmental Services

The need to maintain the balance between business efficiency and personal safety for all staff and visitors is a delicate balance.

Leaning either one or the other is not desirable as this can lead to pressures within the workplace on both an economic and, more seriously, a safety basis.

Where external consulting can provide a solution is by providing „appropriate‟ levels of advice whilst still being sympathetic to economic client needs.

The dangers of employing a full time staff member is that objectivity can be compromised based on self preservation or a literal interpretation of legislation.

External consulting is not only the most efficient and economical form of maintaining a safe work place, but also provides, in our view, the best quality as client premises are being audited by professionals with a wide and current knowledge of both best practice and relevant law.

Network Rail is to be prosecuted over the Cumbrian rail crash at Grayrigg in which one passenger died.

The Office for Rail Regulation (ORR) said it had started criminal proceedings for a breach of health and safety law.

Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died after the Virgin train derailed on the West Coast Main Line in February 2007.

In November, an inquest jury found poorly maintained points were to blame for causing her death.

The train went over a “degraded” set of points at 92mph and careered down an embankment, leaving 88 people injured.

Network Rail is facing a charge under section 3(1) of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work.

The ORR said: “This results from the company’s failure to provide and implement suitable and sufficient standards, procedures, guidance, training, tools and resources for the inspection and maintenance of fixed stretcher bar points.”

Network Rail Managing Director Robin Gisby said: “Network Rail has not hidden from its responsibilities – the company accepted quickly that it was a fault with the infrastructure that caused the accident.

“We again apologise to Mrs Masson’s family. Since the derailment Network Rail has worked closely with the authorities, conducted comprehensive and detailed investigations and made substantial changes to its maintenance regime.”

The number of directors and senior managers prosecuted under section 37 of the HSWA 1974 has rocketed by more than 400 per cent in the last five years, according to unofficial figures released by the HSE in response to a freedom of information (FoI) request.

In October last year, solicitor Lee Hughes asked the regulator a number of questions regarding prosecutions of individual directors over the last 12 years. The figures reported back to Mr Hughes show that 43 directors and/or senior managers and company secretaries were prosecuted under s37 of the HSWA in 2010/11* – the highest since 1999/2000.

The total also represents a significant increase on the 12-year-period’s low of 10 prosecutions under s37 in 2005/06, and follows the period’s previous high of 36 – recorded in both 2008/09 and 2009/10.

The total number of individuals convicted under s37 in 2010/11 was 35 – a substantial increase on the five convictions secured in 2005/06.*

Interestingly, of the senior managers and directors prosecuted in 2010/11, seven faced charges as a result of an investigation that followed a fatal incident; 15 were prosecuted for offences that resulted from an investigation where there had not been a fatal incident; and 21 resulted from an investigation where no incident of any nature had occurred.

Following conviction, three directors were disqualified for periods of between four and five years under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. Data in relation to this matter were not available prior to 2008/09, a year in which three directors were also disqualified. None was disqualified in 2009/10.

Disqualification is not confined to s37 breaches; other reasons could include breaches of sections 3(2), 7, 8 and 36 of the 1974 Act, as well as contravention of Improvement or Prohibition Notices. Nevertheless, a general lack of awareness among HSE operations directors and their local-authority counterparts of the 1986 Act provisions was highlighted in an influential research report prepared for the HSE in 2007 by academics at the University of Warwick.

The research, which looked at the period between the 1986 Act coming into force and 2005, concluded that just 10 directors had been disqualified for health and safety reasons over this timespan – a figure dwarfed by the 1,500, or so, directors disqualified for insolvency, or other financial reasons over the same period.

In September last year, the Lib Dems put forward a policy paper at their party conference, advocating that the power to disqualify an individual from being a company director should be extended to serious failure to protect employees’ well-being.

Moreover, despite calls for the Institute of Directors/HSE code of practice on directors’ duties to be made statutory, it remains voluntary.

* The HSE cautions that this data has not been validated and may not be completely accurate.

A Liverpool businessman has been fined £112,000 after a labourer died following a fall from the roof of an industrial unit, just months after another worker was injured in a fall on the same site.

John McCleary fell 15 feet while fitting roof panels at a construction site in Toxteth being managed by Taj ul Malook Mann.

He lost his balance while on a narrow beam he was using as no scaffolding had been erected.

The 51-year-old father-of-two, from Toxteth, was paralysed from the waist down and died of pneumonia just over seven months later as a result of his injuries.

Mr Mann was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following Mr McCleary’s death.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Mr Mann had hired Mr McCleary to fit roof panels on an industrial unit he owned in High Park Street, Toxteth. But no scaffolding was supplied and Mr McCleary had to carry out the job while standing on four-inch wide steel beams, leading to him losing his balance and falling.

He underwent an eight hour operation after the incident on 12 June 2008 and was readmitted to hospital in December with illness related to his condition.  He died on 27th January 2009.

During the HSE investigation, video was discovered which had been filmed by Mr McCleary on his mobile phone in the weeks before his fall. It shows labourers carrying out work while on top of the narrow roof beams.

Investigations also revealed a bricklayer had escaped with minor injuries after falling from scaffolding at the site in an earlier incident. The worker had refused to continue working for Mr Mann after the incident.

Mr McCleary’s Aunt, Beryl Swanwick, said:  “John was a very special person – thoughtful, kind, caring and unselfish. His death has left a void in all our lives that cannot be filled.

“We are all devastated by his loss, which is made worse by the nature of his death. Having been paralysed by falling from the roof, he then went on to suffer immeasurably in a critical care unit for one month before he died.

“We miss his voice, his face and everything about him. Nothing can compensate us for the loss of John.”

Taj ul Malook Mann, of Queen’s Drive, Liverpool, admitted four breaches of health and safety regulations after failing to take steps to prevent a fall which could have resulted in injury, and failing to ensure that work on his site was being carried out safely. He also did not fulfil his legal duty to report the incident to HSE.

He was fined £112,000 and ordered to pay £19,331 in prosecution costs on 13 January 2012.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Kevin Jones, said:  “Property developers must understand that health and safety rules need to be adhered to at all times, regardless of how small a project may be.

“As the Project Manager at the site, Mr Mann was in charge of buying in materials and employing people to carry out work, but he completely failed to take any steps to protect his workforce. John McCleary was balancing on narrow beams with absolutely nothing in place to stop him from falling.

“Had Mr Mann used scaffolding or netting as he should have done, John McCleary would still be alive today. I sincerely hope that this case acts as a warning to other property developers who think that the law doesn’t apply to them.”

Last year, 38 workers were killed in Great Britain as a result of a fall and more than 4,000 suffered major injuries.

A company in Carmarthenshire which makes socks for Prince Charles has been found guilty of failing to protect its employees from asbestos.

Corgi Hosiery in Ammanford hired unqualified contractors to remove the material and replace a roof.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court heard the Health and Safety Executive was tipped off and ordered the company to evacuate its factory on New Road in 2008.

The company had denied breaching the Health and Safety Act.

During the trial the jury heard in 2008 Corgi Hosiery hired Dragon Cladding as a contractor to work on the replacement of a roof.

On 22 October the HSE received a telephone call from someone complaining that asbestos was being removed from the factory while employees were still there.

“Covered in dust”

Simon Parrington, prosecuting, said an investigation showed that asbestos dust had been spread throughout the factory and across the car park.

The jury heard that one machine could not be moved during the work and the operator Paul Hale had continued working while chunks of asbestos bounced onto the factory floor around him and his machine became covered in dust.

Mr Parrington said it could be many years, even decades, before it is known if any employees will develop lung cancer.

Samples were taken from 14 locations and every one had either white, blue or brown asbestos in them.

A skip filled with asbestos material was left parked at the factory after a waste disposal company refused to remove it because their employees realised what was inside. A properly qualified company using eight men took two-and-a-half months to clean the site at a cost of more than £210,000.

The jury heard Corgi Hosiery was run by Chris Jones and his sister Lisa Wood.

Mr Jones told the jury that he was assured that any asbestos would be removed safely.

When it was discovered that roof purlins had been coated in a white material he was reassured, he said, that it was not asbestos and so approved the firm to chip the material away using hammers and chisels.

The court heard Ms Wood was so oblivious to the true nature of the material falling onto the factory floor she allowed her children to make shapes out of the dust.

Mr Parrington told the jury if Corgi Hosiery had been unsure as to whether asbestos was present then the company was required by law to assume it was and to proceed accordingly.

Dragon Cladding, and its manager, Stuart Phillips, 25, of Llangadog, had already admitted breaching health and safety at work regulations.

As well as having a royal warrant to make Highland Hosiery for the Prince of Wales, Corgi makes parade hosiery for Scottish Pipe Bands and has also supplied its 100% cashmere socks and knitwear to household names such as Ralph Lauren, Balenciaga, Vivienne Westwood, Hermes, Pringle and Pierre Balmain.