Construction firm fined after workers' lives put at risk

Date:

25 November 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW/66Retro

A construction company has been sentenced after the lives of up to 30 workers were put at risk at two new waterfront apartment blocks in Liverpool.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Retro Future 2000 Ltd following a visit to the construction site on Kings Dock in the city centre on 29 April 2010, which revealed major safety concerns.

The inspection of the six-story apartment blocks, on Keel Road, found several areas of the site had no barriers to stop workers falling and being seriously injured or even killed.

They included an open lift shaft, a staircase landing between the fourth and fifth floors with no walls or rails, and an empty floor-to-ceiling window frame on the sixth floor with a rubbish chute attached.

The HSE investigation concluded that a worker could easily have fallen out of the window frame while emptying rubbish into the chute, if they had tripped on a plank of wood next to it.

Empty window frame, with a rubbish shute attached, on the sixth floor of the Kings Dock apartment block in Liverpool

Liverpool Magistrates' Court heard that HSE also issued four enforcement notices following a previous visit to the site on 22 October 2009. They included a prohibition notice relating to falls from height, stopping work taking place until improvements had been made.

Retro Future 2000 Ltd was found guilty of breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to take measures to prevent workers being injured in a fall. The company, of Oldham Road in Manchester, was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,981 on 25 November 2010.

Kevin Jones, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

"This is one of the worst cases I have ever dealt with and Retro Future is extremely lucky that no one was seriously injured. The company was managing a major construction project in Liverpool city centre, but the conditions on the site were appalling.

"There were several instances where Retro Future had failed to do anything to prevent falls, and put lives in danger as a result. We issued four enforcement notices, and offered written advice on managing the risks from falls, following a previous visit.

"Sadly, despite initially making improvements, the company appears to have fallen back into old habits within a few weeks."

In 2008/9, there were 35 deaths and more than 4,000 major injuries caused by falls from height. Information on how to prevent falls 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. 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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