Lawford Kidd's Blog

St Mirren midfielder John McGinn is taking legal action against his former club following a training ground prank that saw him seriously injured.

The 20-year-old midfielder was spiked in the leg by a training pole after it was thrown at him at a training session at club’s training ground in April. McGinn fell over a training pole before the club captain Stephen Thompson threw another pole while he was on the floor.

As a result of the injury, McGinn was unable to play for the rest of the season and with his contract set to expire, was unable to try and win a new contract or a move to another club.

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has drafted a new international health and safety standard, aimed at reducing the impact of occupational deaths and injuries.

At a meeting in Trinidad, which was hosted by The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the ISO published the latest draft of the new standard. Health and safety professionals from different countries, industries and cultures, were then able to discuss the proposed standard. In particular, 2,500 comments from the consultation were reviewed, clauses were examined and amendments suggested by health and safety professional from around the world.

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.

Two roofers have received suspended sentences after a Derbyshire office worker was injured when a roll of roofing felt crashed through the ceiling of her office.

The woman was sitting at her desk when the metre-long, 37kg roll fell through a roof light and came through the ceiling, hitting her on the shoulder.

She was taken to hospital with injuries to her head, shoulder and left arm and was off work for two weeks following the incident in September 2010.

An Ayr recycling company was fined £80,000 after a worker was severely injured when he was crushed between two skips.