Company director fined for failing to conduct risk assessment
12:23 - 03/08/2010
Company director fined for failing to...
A company director has been fined £2,750 for neglecting to conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment after one of his workers was injured in a fall from height.
Mr Thomas Muir, aged 56 and resident in Kirkcaldy, is the director of RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd. He was prosecuted at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for the incident, which occurred on 16th May 2007, and pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management Regulations 1999.
Mr Muir’s firm operates from The Bay in Inverkeithing and, on the date in question, the work involved the berthing of a vessel at Berth No. 1 of an extremely rundown quay. The operation was carried out at night despite the fact that the quay did not provide any lighting and, almost inevitably, worker Charles Greenhill, 47, fell into the water between the quay and the berthing vessel. A lack of any means of escape meant that Mr Greenhill had to wait to be rescued by the vessel’s lifeboat.
The company itself, RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd, also faced prosecutors. They pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to breaching the Docks Regulations 1988 and were ordered to pay a total fine of £14,000.
Commenting on the case, HSE Inspector Michael Orr said: “This was a significant breach of health and safety law which could have resulted in death had it not been for the intervention of the ship’s crew. The conditions on site were unacceptable. There was no suitable or sufficient risk assessment, or attempt at planning which could have identified the state of the quay as unacceptable for use for any dock operations. This case should serve as a warning to all employers to ensure that routing and infrequent activities are effectively planned.”
Perry Leeks, Operations Director at First Response Training, says: “Correctly implemented risk assessments are the basis for a well-managed health and safety system. The director of a company is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all workplace activity is conducted as safely as possible and that any potential hazards have been identified and sufficiently dealt with.
“If part of your designated role within a company is to control and manage risks then it is vital that you carry out a thorough risk assessment in all areas of activity. Many people don’t realise that individuals within a company, not just the company as a whole, can be targeted for prosecution and receive personal fines when health and safety failings lead to accidents.”
First Response Training offers a number of risk assessment-related training courses, including the full day Managing and Supervising Risk course, and a number of related e-learning titles such as Office Risk Assessment and 5 Steps Risk Assessment in the Workplace, which take just 30 minutes to complete.
For further information about these or any of our other health and safety training courses, please get in touch with us today.
Mr Thomas Muir, aged 56 and resident in Kirkcaldy, is the director of RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd. He was prosecuted at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for the incident, which occurred on 16th May 2007, and pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management Regulations 1999.
Mr Muir’s firm operates from The Bay in Inverkeithing and, on the date in question, the work involved the berthing of a vessel at Berth No. 1 of an extremely rundown quay. The operation was carried out at night despite the fact that the quay did not provide any lighting and, almost inevitably, worker Charles Greenhill, 47, fell into the water between the quay and the berthing vessel. A lack of any means of escape meant that Mr Greenhill had to wait to be rescued by the vessel’s lifeboat.
The company itself, RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd, also faced prosecutors. They pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to breaching the Docks Regulations 1988 and were ordered to pay a total fine of £14,000.
Commenting on the case, HSE Inspector Michael Orr said: “This was a significant breach of health and safety law which could have resulted in death had it not been for the intervention of the ship’s crew. The conditions on site were unacceptable. There was no suitable or sufficient risk assessment, or attempt at planning which could have identified the state of the quay as unacceptable for use for any dock operations. This case should serve as a warning to all employers to ensure that routing and infrequent activities are effectively planned.”
Perry Leeks, Operations Director at First Response Training, says: “Correctly implemented risk assessments are the basis for a well-managed health and safety system. The director of a company is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all workplace activity is conducted as safely as possible and that any potential hazards have been identified and sufficiently dealt with.
“If part of your designated role within a company is to control and manage risks then it is vital that you carry out a thorough risk assessment in all areas of activity. Many people don’t realise that individuals within a company, not just the company as a whole, can be targeted for prosecution and receive personal fines when health and safety failings lead to accidents.”
First Response Training offers a number of risk assessment-related training courses, including the full day Managing and Supervising Risk course, and a number of related e-learning titles such as Office Risk Assessment and 5 Steps Risk Assessment in the Workplace, which take just 30 minutes to complete.
For further information about these or any of our other health and safety training courses, please get in touch with us today.
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