Roofer sentenced after workers' lives put at risk

Date:

25 October 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW/61Jones

A roofer has appeared in court after four of his employees were spotted balancing dangerously on a barn roof in Cheshire.

Joseph Jones, 61, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an inspector visited Norley Bank Farm, on Cow Lane in Norley, on 23 February 2009. He found Mr Jones giving instructions to the men, who were working approximately four metres above the ground, while they refurbished the roof.

Workers balancing dangerously on a barn roof in Norley

Halton magistrates court in Runcorn heard that HSE Inspector John Ellis immediately requested that the workers come down from the roof. He then issued a Prohibition Notice requiring work to stop until scaffolding or edge protection had been put up at the eaves of the roof.

HSE took the decision to prosecute due to the serious nature of the health and safety breach, and the potential risk to the lives of workers.

Mr Jones, of Chester Road in Pentre, South Wales, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,000 on 25 October.

HSE Inspector John Ellis said:

"Any of Mr Jones' four employees could have suffered a serious injury as a result of falling from the barn roof. Each year 11 roofers are killed as the result a fall. It is only luck that none of the men were injured on this occasion.

"Mr Jones admitted in his interview with HSE that this project was larger than he normally carried out, and that in hindsight it was impossible to carry out the work without scaffolding.

"We publish free clear advice on the measures need when carrying out roof work. Mr Jones should have been aware of the expected standards."

Last year, more than 4,000 workers suffered major injuries as the result of falls from height and 15 lost their lives. Information on preventing injuries is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

Notes 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. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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