News

Schools were closed following hydrochloric acid release   Joint investigation and prosecution by HSE and the Environment Agency  Guidance is available on maintaining equipment in large chemical plants  A chemical manufacturing company has been fined £2.5m following two incidents of uncontrolled releases of highly corrosive acids at its site in West Thurrock, Essex.   Industrial Chemicals Ltd […]

This April, Britain’s bosses are being invited to follow five simple steps to prevent and reduce stress in their workplace. The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Working Minds campaign has called on employers to support workers mental health during Stress Awareness Month. Over the course of the month, employers are encouraged to focus on one […]

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has been fined £250,000 following failures relating to patient falls in its hospitals. Three elderly patients sustained falls in 2022 and 2023 and they all sadly died. The cause of death of two of them was identified as being as a direct result of falling. Richard Hughes, 84 and Gwilym […]

A self-employed roofing contractor has been ordered to undertake unpaid work after the uncontrolled spread of asbestos in a back garden, putting two young workers and local residents at risk. Doorbell-cam footage shows parts of an old garage roof being disposed of with a lack of control measures. The footage has been released by the […]

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its 2025 Annual Science Review, showcasing the work it has delivered in support of the five strategic objectives outlined in the HSE’s 10-year strategy Protecting People and Places. The 2025 review features more than 20 case studies from HSE’s science division with demonstrating how its extensive expertise, […]

A company and its director have been fined a combined £18,000 after a man was injured during excavation work in West Sussex. JHE Construction and Jordan Hay-Ellis pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws following the incident on 23 February 2023. The company had been contracted to complete a full barn conversion, which included […]

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) campaign aimed at preventing or combatting stress in the workplace has welcomed a new partner ahead of stress awareness month in April.  Healthy Working Wales has become the 36th organisation to join Working Minds as part of its mission to improve the health of employees across Wales.  In 2023/24, […]

Man fell through fragile roof in Dudley. Company, now in liquidation, does not escape criminal sanction Detailed guidance on both working on fragile surfaces and working at height is available from HSE. A company and its operations manager have both been fined after a man fell to his death through a roof at its site […]

A Scottish local authority has been fined more than £13,000 after a carbon monoxide leak at a primary school in Bishopbriggs. East Dunbartonshire Council pleaded guilty following the incident at Balmuildy Primary School in February 2020.  A number of staff and pupils attending the school on 19 February 2020 reported feeling ill, experiencing symptoms such […]

A London property developer has been fined £63,000 plus costs after Britain’s workplace regulator found multiple failures at a construction site in Dalston. Nofax Enterprises Limited was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following four visits to its site on Dalston Lane over a 13 month period between 2020 and 2021. The company […]

Britain’s workplace regulator is reminding manufacturing firms of their asbestos duties.  As we approach Global Asbestos Awareness Week (April 1 – 7), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding those running businesses occupying buildings built before 2000 to properly assess, manage and monitor asbestos risks in line with the law.  Older manufacturing facilities may […]

A hydraulics company, with locations throughout the UK, has been fined after an employee became trapped in a machine that he was working on at a customer’s premises in Plymouth. David Lawrence, a 63-year-old engineer, was undertaking fault finding on a laser cutting machine for Pearson Hydraulics Ltd, on 26 July 2023, when the cutting […]

The UK Chemicals Contact Centre was established to support businesses and stakeholders with general enquiries relating to the EU Exit Transition Period. On 31 March 2025 the telephone services for the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR), Prior Informed Consent Regulation (PIC) and Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (CLP) will be closing. HSE can still be contacted […]

Workers scrambled up the rungs of an unsafe scaffold to work at a block of flats in Merseyside. The company in question, A.I.M Access Solutions Ltd has been fined £30,000 for its failure to assemble safe scaffolding following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). In May 2021, the workplace regulator identified serious […]

A self-employed builder has been handed a suspended prison sentence following the death of an asylum seeker who fell from scaffolding at a domestic property in Bradford. Sarabjit Singh, 44, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Mr Eraj Rahanpour, a 29-year-old originally […]

An East Yorkshire company has been fined more than half a million pounds after an employee’s lower arm was severed when it became entangled in a conveyor. Bartosz Gaj, a blender operative, had been attempting to clear a blockage at AB Agri Limited’s premises in Fridaythorpe, Driffield on 3 November 2021. Mr Gaj’s hand was […]

Two brothers have been sentenced for failing to protect members of the public from their cattle. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Andrew and David Turnbull failed to offer and display signs of an alternative route to a public right of way in their field in the Coalsgarth Valley, North Yorkshire. […]

A renovation company in South Wales has been sentenced after defying enforcement notices from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Inspectors say Greenlife Property Developments Ltd failed to heed their warnings about the dangers posed to workers by a two-and-a-half metre deep excavation of the entire back garden of a house in Pit Place, Cwmbach, […]

Albie Speakman, 3, died in July 2022 after being struck by a telehandler driven by his father. Neil Speakman was sentenced on Friday for failing to ensure Albie’s health and safety. Mr Speakman should have followed HSE guidance, says lead inspector. A farmer has been jailed after he failed to ensure the health and safety […]

An indoor skiing company in Tamworth has been fined £100,000 following the death of a schoolboy. Twelve-year-old Louis Watkiss had been at a tobogganing birthday party at the Snowdome in Tamworth on 24 September 2021.  He was descending the main ski slope on a toboggan when it slid into the back of a member of […]