HSE/NE/257/09 7 July 2009

Northumberland malting firm fined £10,000 following serious workplace incident

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding employers and staff of the dangers of working at height following a serious incident at a Northumberland malting firm.

Simpsons Malt Limited, of Tweed Valley Maltings, Tweedside Trading Estate, Berwick, which manufactures a variety of malts, was today (7 July 2009) fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £5,883.75 in costs, after it pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety legislation. It was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.

The incident took place on 6 October 2007, when a worker – John Weatherburn, of Berwick – was injured after falling from the forks of a fork lift truck while attempting to repair a roller shutter door.

HSE Principal Inspector Richard Bulmer said: "Falls from height are the most common cause of workplace fatalities and many other serious major injuries.

"Experience shows that using a simple pallet on a standard fork lift truck as a means of access when carrying out maintenance or repair work is fraught with danger. Many workers have been either killed or seriously injured in this way in the past.

"Health and Safety Law requires a reasonable approach to risk reduction, involving for example, such alternatives as the safe use of ladders, mobile scaffolds or cherry pickers (mobile elevated work platforms).

"The method employed should be sufficient to the circumstances of the task. Fork lift trucks may be used if properly modified and provided with a secure safety cage."

Notes to editors:

1. In relation to the incident on 6 October 2007, Simpsons Malt Limited was charged with one breach of health and safety law.
2. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, in that they failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably  practicable, the safety of their employees, including John Weatherburn, during the repair of a roller shutter door at the entrance to the feed store/fertilizer department.

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Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News and Pr North East