Menu

Health and Safety News

Occupational health and safety news and guidance

Blog posts : "work at height"

Safety considerations when hiring a cherry picker

Four essential safety tips for operating a cherry picker

Construction company fined half a million pounds for fatal demolition work

McGee Group Limited was fined £500,000 with £66,236.22 in costs for a breach of Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, following the death of 33-year-old labourer Dainius Rupsys in April 2014.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Mr Rupsys from Lithuania w…

Read more

How to Work Safely at Height: 5 Essential Tips

Photo shows work at heightWhether you're clearing a gutter or your employees are working on a roof, any tasks completed above the ground must be conducted carefully with health and safety firmly in mind. Even the shortest fall can result in serious injury, while more significant falls can even result in fatalities.

In rec…

Read more

Understanding the risks of working at height: Key factors to consider

Photo shows workers on scaffolding working at height

In some industries, it’s inevitable that employees are going to need to work at height. This is inherently risky, but it’s possible (and necessary) that businesses identify and assess those risks before reducing them. In fact, businesses have a legal obligation to do this.

Here are some o…

Read more

4 essential safety tips for operating a cherry picker

Photo shows a worker using a cherry picker to work at heightCherry pickers – also known variously as elevated work platforms, basket cranes or man lifts – are movable access platforms that can be extremely useful for working at height. Mounted onto a truck, these machines provide high level access for many commercial applications including maintenance and cl…

Read more

The wind industry: Five vital considerations for rescue and descent systems

Photo shows a row of wind turbinesOne of the most worrying statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive in recent years shows that of all fatalities occurring in a work environment between 2013 and 2014, almost 3 out of every 10 were due to falls from height. While the HSE do not provide figures for specific industries in…

Read more

Dos and don’ts for working at height

Photo shows a painter standing on a stepladderWorkplace injuries can pose very real dangers in our daily jobs, particularly when the task involves working high up on a building or other structure. Safety statistics make for grim reading, with accidents on building sites responsible for more than their proportionate share of all fatal injuries a…

Read more

Glazing company fined £36,000 for dangerous work at height

Photo shows the dangerous work at heightIdeal Glazing (Euro) Ltd. has been fined £36,000 after carrying out work in the West End of London with no measures to prevent the workers falling eight metres and after dropping part of a window onto the public area below.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard the company carried out window inst…

Read more

Leicestershire construction firm fined after sacks of rubble thrown from building window

Photo shows works working at height and a large bag of rubbleJ A Ball Ltd. of Coalville was fined £13,000 with £1,182 costs after admitting breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

Workers were spotted throwing sacks of rubble from a building project opposite a police station, police officers called the Health and Safety Executiv…

Read more

Safety at Height: Ladders Vs. Scaffold Towers

Photo shows a woman using a ladder incorrectly for DIYIn the UK every single year there are accidents related to falling from height that could and should have been avoided. In total, between 2013 and 2014 there were nearly 3,000 incidents where employees were injured from falls from height. Of that figure, 39 people died; that’s 39 people whose lives …

Read more

Loft company fined after employee injured in scaffold collapse

Photo shows the aftermath of the scaffold collapseA loft conversion company has been fined for safety failings after an employee was injured in a dramatic scaffold collapse outside a property in North London.

The structure buckled, tipped towards the home it was being used to serve and bent in on itself – effectively creating a chute that sent t…

Read more

Suffolk building company fined for asbestos and work at height failings

Photo shows the farm building where work took placeLJW Cladding Ltd. has been fined after removing asbestos insulation board without a licence and failing to protect its workers from falls of up to four metres at a farm building in Waltham, Essex.

Workers were potentially exposed to dangerous asbestos fibres and only provided with baby wipes …

Read more

Kent firm and director in court for unsafe demolition site

Photo shows unsafe working at the demolition site

A Kent construction company and its managing director have been prosecuted after both displayed a ‘shocking disregard’ for workers’ safety at a demolition site in Surrey.

Daniel Lautier admitted two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act and his firm, ICG Construction Servic…

Read more

Hampshire aircraft maintenance company fined after workers injured in falls

Photo shows an aircraft

ATC (Lasham) Ltd. (a Hampshire-based aircraft maintenance company) has been sentenced for safety failures after three workers were injured in separate falls at its airfield in Lasham – two in the same month.

The company was fined a total of £35,000 and ordered to pay £32,430 in costs after admi…

Read more

How avoiding the ‘fatal four’ can improve your construction site

Photo shows a worker on a construction siteYour employees are your number one asset on the job site, and taking a few moments to make certain the job site is safe and secure can go a long way towards productivity and can save you money in the long run.

According to the US Department of Labor, 806 workers were killed in 2012 while working on…

Read more

How to avoid a worker's compensation claim on your construction zone

Photo shows a worker on a construction siteThe number of work related injuries, both in the UK and Australia, is quite high. In fact, 2012-2013 saw an estimated 646,000 work related accidents with 1/3 of those leading to three or more missed work days and another 1/3, seven or more missed days. While self-reported non-fatal injuries have fal…

Read more

Scaffolding firm in court for department store failings

Photo is an extract from the CCTV footage showing the unsafe scaffolding work

A Hertfordshire scaffolding firm has been fined for a catalogue of safety failings – including throwing and catching metal fittings over the heads of shoppers – as they erected two scaffolds outside an Oxford department store.

Darren Baker Scaffolding Limited also failed to ensure the structu…

Read more

Firm fined for unsafe Oxfordshire scaffolds

Photo shows the scaffold in Wantage with missing ties, bracing and vehicle impact protection

A scaffolding firm has been fined for dangerous scaffold installations at sites in Wantage and Oxford.

Workers and passing members of the public alike were placed at risk because of faults with the structures, which included missing ties, bracing and vehicle impact protection.

West Hagbourne-bas…

Read more

Roofing firm in court following BBC Watchdog probe

Photo shows unprotected work at height

An Oldham roofing firm and company director have appeared in court after being filmed breaking the law by the BBC’s Watchdog programme.

Renov8 (North West) Ltd and Darren Potts were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after footage showed workers on top of house roofs using a pr…

Read more

20 Blog Posts