DECORATORS FINED £15,000 FOLLOWING FALL FROM HEIGHT

HSE press release E102:03 - 16 June 2003

Decorative Specialists Ltd were fined a total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £1070.20 in costs, following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution over an incident where a worker fell from height and sustained head injuries. The incident occurred on 11 October 2002 when a worker was undertaking painting and minor repair work at The Holme, Regents Park, London.

Mr Bryan Blackmore, employed by Decorative Specialists Ltd as Project Manager and Safety Adviser for the job to repaint and repair The Holme, fell almost 3 metres while attempting to climb from an unsecured ladder onto a scaffold platform. Mr Blackmore landed face down with the ladder underneath him, sustaining head injuries that have impaired the cognitive functioning of his brain.

Decorative Specialists Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching three separate regulations of the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 (CHSW Regs) at the London Magistrates Court on Wednesday 4 June 2003. The regulations breached were:

• Reg 6(3) of CHSW Regs, for failing to ensure that the scaffold being used was provided with suitable and sufficient guard rails;
• Reg 6(6) of CHSW Regs, for failing to ensure that the ladder used was fit for purpose and correctly tied off; and,
• Reg 29 of CHSW Regs, for failing to ensure that the scaffold used as a place of work at the Holme was inspected by a competent person as required by Schedule 7 of this regulation.

On the same day Decorative Specialists Ltd were fined the maximum £5000 for each of the breaches of the CHSW Regs totally £15,000, and ordered to pay £1070.20 at the City of London Magistrates Court.

Principal Inspector Barry Mullen said: "The HSE Construction Division are extremely concerned about the number of accidents related to falls from ladders. It is important that ladders are securely tied and that they are fit for purpose. Where short comings are identified the HSE will take strong action in accordance with their priorities for this year."

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 6(3) of the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 states:

"…where any person is to carry out work at a place from which he is liable to fall a distance of 2 metres or more or where any person is to use a means of access to or egress from a place of work from which access or egress he is liable to fall a distance of 2 metres or more-

(a) there shall … be provided and used suitable and sufficient guard-rails and toeboards, barriers or other similar means of protection to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, the fall of any person from that place…"

2. Regulation 6(6) of the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 states:

"Where a ladder is used it shall comply with the provisions of Schedule 5.

3. Schedule 5 of CHSW Regs states:

"2 A ladder shall be

(a) be suitable and of sufficient strength for the purpose or purposes for which it is being used:

(b) be so erected as to ensure that it does not become displaces…"

4. Regulation 29 of the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 states:

"...a place of work (at height) shall be used to carry out construction work only if that place has been inspected by a competent person.."

5. Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of death, disability and injury in construction, accounting for 37 fatalities (which is 47% of all fatalities) and 1425 major injuries (which is 30% of all major injuries) in 2001/2. Across all industries, falls from height accounted for 74 deaths and 5,286 major injuries in 2001/2.

6. Decorative Specialists Ltd are based at 14 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4EP.

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