Lawford Kidd's Blog

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.

New figures have shown that the ongoing trend for falls in the number of people injured and made unwell at work has continued.

Nearly two thirds of Scots killed at work last year worked in agriculture, analysis of figures published earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have shown. Of the fifteen workplace fatalities that occurred between April 2010 and March 2011, nine were in agriculture.

A multinational cement firm has been fined £200,000 following the death of a worker in an explosion at its Rugby premises.

A national malt company, Pauls Malt Limited, has been fined after a worker had to have the lower part of his left leg amputated, when he became entangled in machinery inside a grain silo. His right leg was also badly broken and is still held together by plates and pins.