Derby firm fined for unsafe roof work

Date:

8 September 2011

Release No:

HSE/EM/233/11

Two roofers were caught working on a Swadlincote roof without any safety equipment, a court heard.

Derby Magistrates' Court today fined contractors Aquacoat Ltd after the men were seen risking their lives on the roof of the house in Oldfield Drive, Swadlincote on 15 June 2010.

Passing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors noticed the men using no safety equipment to prevent falls whilst cleaning the roof of the property. This unsafe system of work risked injury to the roofers themselves and the homeowner.

Aquacoat Ltd of Pride Park, Derby, were found guilty of breaching sections 4(1) and 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £10,000 with £4,177.65 costs.

HSE inspector Martin Giles said:

"Fortunately no one was injured on this occasion, but this was a blatant disregard for health and safety which put both workers and members of the public in danger.

"Roofing work requires careful planning and assessment of the risks involved. In this case employees were working without the correct equipment to protect them from falls or to protect passers by from falling material.

"Falls from height are the biggest cause of workplace deaths and it's crucial that employers make sure work is properly planned, appropriately supervised and that sufficient measures are put in place to protect staff and members of the public from the risks."

Last year more than 4,000 employees suffered major injuries after falling from height at work, and 21 workers in the construction industry died. For more information on HSE's shattered lives campaign go to www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that work at height is - (a) properly planned; (b) appropriately supervised; and (c) carried out in a manner which is so far as is reasonably practicable safe, and that its planning includes the selection of work equipment in accordance with regulation 7."
3. Regulation 6(3) of the same Regulations 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."
4. Visit www.hse.gov.uk/falls for more guidance on working at height.

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