Lancashire roofer caught on camera risking lives

Date:

12 January 2012

Release No:

HSE/NW/71Singleton

A Lancashire roofer has been prosecuted after he and two employees were spotted on a shop roof without any protection to stop them falling.

Ross Singleton (left) and another worker carrying out work on the roof of a hairdressers' in Colne

Ross Singleton, who trades as Ross's Roofing, was photographed by an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as he and the two other workers carried out repairs to the roof of a hairdressers' on Skipton Road in Colne.

Burnley Magistrates' Court heard the inspector immediately issued a Prohibition Notice ordering the men to come down from the roof but, despite initially stopping work, they later returned to the roof without any safety measures in place.

The court was told Mr Singleton had also put members of the public at risk as he was working above a busy row of shops, and any falling debris could have struck someone.

Ross Singleton pleaded guilty to breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 after he failed to take action to prevent workers being injured in a fall, and ignored a Prohibition Notice.

Mr Singleton, 23 of Dickson Street in Colne, was fined £350 and ordered to pay £300 in prosecution costs on 12 January 2012.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Jacqueline Western said:

"Ross Singleton and the two other men were working nearly three metres above the ground - a height that could have resulted in a serious injury if any of them had fallen.

"He should have treated the Prohibition Notice as a formal warning and stopped work until safety measures, such as guard rails, were in place. Instead he ignored the notice and has found himself in court as a result.

"Dozens of people die every year as a result of a fall while at work. Roofers should treat the risks seriously and take action to make sure workers stay safe."

Last year, 38 workers were killed in Great Britain as a result of a fall and more than 4,000 suffered major injuries. Information on working safely at height is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

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 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."
3. Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It is an offence for a person to contravene any requirement or prohibition imposed by an improvement notice or a prohibition notice (including any such notice as modified on appeal)."

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