£30,000 fingertip fine

Prosecutions and Claims |
02.04.2008

Two companies have been prosecuted after faulty machinery resulted in the loss of the tips of an engineer's two fingers.

James Adams was working for RCP Macpress engineers at SCA Recycling UK Ltd's premises. He was repairing a shredder, which had been damaged. When the panel of the shredder that allowed access to the damaged area failed to easily open, Mr Adams and a colleague resorted to forcing it open. The panel opened suddenly, but immediately shut again, trapping Mr Adams' fingers.

The court heard that although the two employees had filled in the firm's risk assessment form prior to attempting to fix the machine, they had only been instructed how to complete the form, rather than how to actually carry out the risk assessment.

The HSE investigation revealed that SCA had a number of types of permit-to-work documents and a permit was issued to the RCP Macpress engineers. However, SCA had failed to ensure that employees who issued permits had been properly trained and did not have a clear understanding of how the permit-to-work system should have been operated.

RCP Macpress UK Ltd was fined £15,000 with costs of £2,496 after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974, which states that: "it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees".

SCA Recycling UK Ltd was also fined £15,000 with costs of £3,042 after pleading guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Act, which states that: "it shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".

"This incident demonstrates the importance of ensuring that employees are properly trained to carry out risk assessments and to properly operate permit-to-work systems," commented Loraine Charles, HSE Inspector, "not just how to fill in forms."