Health and Safety Executive

Father and son roofers prosecuted for endangering themselves and others

HSE WM 264/07 4 October 2007

The Health and safety Executive (HSE) has today warned individuals and companies that failure to ensure the safety of those who work at height and the public will not go unpunished.

Dean Soley and his father George, trading as D&G Soley, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by ignoring the obviously high level of danger to themselves and others.

Dean and George Soley were each fined £500 and a total of £1,000 awarded to the prosecution at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court on 4 October 2007 after failing to ensure that no material or object was thrown or tipped from height, where it was liable to cause personal injury and for failing to take measures to prevent any person falling from the roof where they were working. 

On 3 April 2007, three people were observed working on the roof of a commercial building in Waterloo Street Kidderminster and standing close to an unprotected drop while throwing large items of debris into a unprotected skip, approximately 30ft (10m) below, alongside the pavement where pedestrians were passing.

The case was brought by the HSE after a prohibition notice had been served for all roof work to cease. Such was the high degree of danger to the public and to those working that the prosecution was pursued.

Speaking after the case HSE Inspector Katharine Walker said:
"Each year people continue to lose their lives or suffer injury due to failure to ensure safe working at height. The risks from falls from even short distances are well known so those in charge of work at height should ensure that they, their employees and others are protected. In this case, it would have been relatively inexpensive to put protective rails on the roof, a chute for debris and a covering over the skip with surrounded fencing to protect the public.

If left to carry on the roof work the court case against the Soleys could so easily, like many others, have involved a fatality or serious injury.

"It seems incredible that, in this day and age, the dangers were abundantly clear to concerned onlookers yet those supposedly professionally engaged in work were willing to flout important safety legislation where they should have automatically provided suitable protection. The Soleys should be thankful that the vigilance of bystanders and HSE inspectors did not allow their practices to end in tragedy."

Note to editors:

  1. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury."
  2. Regulation 10(3) of the work at Height regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that no material or object is thrown or tipped from height in circumstances where it is liable to cause injury to any person."
  3. In 2005/06 a total of 46 workers died and a further 3351 employees suffered major injury as a result of a fall from height in the workplace. Many of these incidents could be avoided using the right equipment and taking simple precautions.
  4. HSE is working in close partnership with industry to ensure that anyone involved in work at height uses the right equipment for the job and uses it safely. 
  5. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 came into force on 6 April 2005. Regulations introduce a hierarchy for use when planning and risk assessing work at height. Duty holders should consider how to avoid work at height. If this is not possible, they should take steps to prevent a fall occurring. Where they cannot prevent a fall, they should take steps to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall.
  6. A ladder should only be used where a risk assessment demonstrates that the task is low risk and of short duration, or where there are existing features on site that cannot be altered and the use of other equipment is not practical. Such features include restricted space preventing other equipment from being put in place correctly or ground conditions that mean that there is no suitable area to set up alternative equipment.
  7. 4. HSE has published a brief guide to the Work at Height Regulations 2005 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg401.pdf .

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Updated 12.07.11