Revenue censured for draughty call centre

Prosecutions and Claims |
08.11.2007

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has received a Crown Censure for ignoring a Crown Improvement Notice and not ensuring reasonable "thermal comfort" at a Scottish call centre. Workers at the centre in Bathgate, West Lothian, complained to the HSE about poor relative humidity and draughts in the building.

The HSE tries for Crown Censure in cases where it believes that, but for Crown immunity, there would be sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction in the courts.

The HSE found problems with both the design and installation of the building's ventilation system which was left over from its former use as a factory.

Though the department did try to change the system, it was too big and too powerful for office use, where most workers are sedentary, the HSE's director for Scotland, Stewart Campbell, told HSW. There was no effective way of monitoring relative humidity or maintaining it between 40% and 70%. "Relative humidity should be about 40%," he said, "but this system never got up to that level." This, together with the draughts from the system, meant many workers felt "very uncomfortable".

The investigation also found that HMRC failed to obtain or act on competent advice about thermal comfort and allowed the problems to go on for three years, from 2004 to 2007.

The HSE issued a Crown Improvement Notice in January 2007 requiring HMRC to resolve the problems. But the department had still not complied by April.

HMRC acknowledged the failings and was formally censured on 22 October under Section 33(1)(g)1 of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to comply with an improvement notice and under Regulation 7(1)2 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, which states that "during working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable".