Prosecution of a Company – Working at Height Health and Safety

A skip company has been prosecuted by the HSE following an inspection visit to their depot where inspectors saw a worker climbing down a 10 metre high stack of skips with no fall protection in place (no prevention and non fall mitigation). It emerged that the worker had earlier climbed up the stack in order to attach a crane hook to a shackle. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard how a second worker had then clambered up and down a smaller stack just a few metres away, also seemingly unaware of, or disregarding, the risks of falling.

The HSE told the court this was clearly a dangerous practice and reflected poor management and lack of staff competence and training. The company also failed to produce a valid certificate of thorough examination (LOLER) to confirm that the crane it was using was in safe working order.

The HSE Inspectors served five improvement notices at the site.

The Company was fined £30,000 with £1260 costs after admitting to breaches of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and Regulation 9(3) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations. The HSE inspector Neil Fry said:

“the breaches were technical ones, but workers could have been seriously hurt or possibly even killed as a consequence of the dangerous practices and lack of safety awareness and provisions.”