Lawford Kidd's Blog

An English council has been fined £18,000 after a ten-year-old boy sustained severe head injuries while he was playing on a tyre swing in an park, reports the BBC.

Jamie Jackson was hit on the head when the swing’s suspension mechanism collapsed and landed on top of him. He received a fractured skull and his injuries were described as “potentially life threatening” by the Health and Safety Executive.

Blackpool Council had apparently been warned on four separate occasions that the swing was faulty and in need of repair. It pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation and apologised for the incident.

To mark this year’s European Week for Safety and Health at Work the Irish Injuries Board recently published an interesting analysis of the workplace accident claims it received in 2012, and warned businesses of the consequences of cutting corners when it comes to the health and safety of their employees.

Safety failings can be costly

The Irish Injuries Board is an independent Irish Government body that makes statutory personal injury awards in respect of motor, employer and public liability accidents.

Its most recent analysis reveals that the highest award for a work related accident during 2012 amounted to €332,143. In total, the Injuries Board settled 807 work related injury claims during the year, and awarded compensation amounting to €22 million. This was a slight decrease over the previous year, when there were 830 awards made, totalling €22.5 million in compensation.

Health and safety in the construction industry has recently come under the spotlight after a nationwide campaign by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found an alarming number of sites were failing to meet basic safety standards.

Many sites visited by the HSE

The campaign involved HSE inspectors visiting 2,607 sites across the UK where refurbishment or repair work was being carried out. They looked at whether:

• jobs that involved working at height were identified and properly planned to ensure that appropriate precautions, such as proper support of structures, are in place,
• quipment was correctly installed / assembled, inspected and maintained and used properly,
• proper monitoring and control arrangements to prevent unnecessary exposure to harmful dusts were in place,
• sites were well organised, to avoid trips and falls, walkways and stairs free from obstructions, and
• work areas were clear of unnecessary materials and waste and welfare facilities were adequate.

Safety standards found to be inadequate

During their visits, inspectors found insufficient safety standards on almost half (1,105) sites, and on 644 sites work was being carried out in such an unsafe manner than enforcement action had to be taken to protect workers. As a result, HSE inspectors were forced to serve 539 prohibition notices ordering dangerous activities to stop immediately, and 414 improvement notices requiring standards to improve.

New research by LV= Broker has found that one in 20 small business owners have no insurance cover in place – equivalent to 230,000 businesses across the UK - leaving them vulnerable to liability claims, hefty fines and prosecution.

By law, all businesses employing staff must have employers’ liability (EL) insurance as a minimum otherwise they can be fined up to £2,500 a day by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Despite this, the research found that 350,000 small businesses that employ staff have no cover in place.

As well as being vulnerable to fines from the HSE, business owners could find themselves heavily out of pocket should one of their staff make a claim against them. According to LV= claims data, there has been an increase in the frequency of employer liability claims as more employees brings claims against their employers.

Too many workers in the UK are continuing to suffer serious injury, or in some cases death, as a result of falls from height. This type of accident is particularly common in the construction sector, where workers on building sites are regularly expected to work several stories above the ground.

Working at Height Regulations

The inherent risks involved in working at height are obvious, and there are regulations in place that should help ensure these workers are protected as much as possible.

One of the key pieces of legislation providing this protection is the Work at Height Regulations 2005, in which Regulation 6(3) states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling from a distance liable to cause personal injury."