Lawford Kidd's Blog

A cigarette company in America has been ordered by the court to pay compensation amounting to around £13.8 billion to a widow after her husband, who was a smoker, died of lung cancer, reports the BBC.

In addition to the award of punitive damages, she has also been awarded compensatory damages of £9.8 million.

Cynthia Robinson claimed that the company had been negligent by failing to properly inform customers about the risks associated with smoking tobacco.

Government plans to deregulate areas of health and safety, have been criticised by Members of the House of Lords.

As explained in our blog from last week – “Certain Self-Employed Persons to Become Exempt from Health & Safety Law?” - under current UK Government plans, all self-employed workers, with the exception of those undertaking ‘prescribed activities’, will become exempt from health and safety law.

The ‘prescribed activities’ are those thought to be high hazard or high risk, and includes agriculture and construction sectors.

Slips, trips and falls were by far the main cause of public liability accidents in Ireland in 2013, according to recent figures from the Irish Injuries Board. Over 1,700 public liability awards were made during the year, with total compensation awarded amounting to €44 million.

The average public liability award rose year on year by almost 11% to €25,120. In addition, over a two year period, the number of awards of over €100,000 increased from two in 2011 to 18 in 2013. In previous years, females accounted for a far higher proportion of public liability awards made than men. This trend continued in 2013, with females now accounting for 71.4% of total awards made.

Slips, trips and falls accounted for over two-thirds of personal injuries in public places and included accidents on wet floors/surfaces, uneven/broken pavements, drains and manholes.

Under current Health and Safety Executive (HSE) proposals, self-employed people in the United Kindgom (UK), whose work activities pose no potential risk of harm to others, are to become exempt from Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA).

Self-employed persons undertaking activities on a prescribed list however, will continue to have duties under health and safety law.

The prescribed activities listed by the HSE are those:

According to new figures recently published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), between April 2013 and March 2014, 133 people in Britain died in workplace accidents - 17 less than the previous year, 42 less than 2010/11, 46 less than 2008/09 and the lowest number since records began.

With the number of fatal injuries now at 133, the overall rate of fatal injuries in Britain has also dropped from 0.51 per 100,000 workers in 2012/13 to 0.44 in 2013/14 and below the five-year average rate of 0.56. At 0.51 per 100,000. It is thought Britain has the lowest rate of fatal injuries to workers, when compared to the following major industrial nations: Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

The HSE statistics show the rate of fatal injuries in certain industrial sectors. For instance, between April 2013 and March 2014, there were 27 fatal injuries to agricultural workers, 42 in construction and 4 in waste and recycling.