New Coronavirus Government Guidelines
New guidelines have been released for businesses following the announcement of further measures to address rising COVID-19 cases. This includes the need for some businesses to display the official NHS QR code posters so that customers can ‘check-in’ at different premises using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details, as well updated advice on face coverings in the workplace.Scaffolding Company and Director Fined After Fatal Fall From Height
Scaffolding company Wembley Scaffolding Services Limited has been fined following an incident where a worker fell five metres and suffered a fatal head injury.
On 16 February 2017, two operatives were dismantling a scaffold on Cricklewood Broadway, London. During this process the scaffold collapsed resulting in one of the operatives falling at least five metres onto a concrete pavement, causing serious head injuries. He later died from these injuries on 4 March 2017.
A HSE investigation found that Wembley Scaffolding Services Limited’s director, Sean Chapple, failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment, plan the work and provide a design for erection and dismantling of the scaffold. Sean Chapple himself was not knowledgeable about the measures required to do this without putting people at risk and therefore didn’t follow the correct measures to ensure safe erection and dismantling of the scaffold.
Wembley Scaffolding Services Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(3)(b) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and 8(b)ii; Section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £7,860 and ordered to pay costs of £8,940. The Director Sean Chapple pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 8(2)(ii) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005; sections 33(1)(a) and 37(1) of the Act; Section 33(2) and Schedule 3A to the Act (as amended by section 1 of the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008. He was fined £1,000, received a 12-week prison sentence suspended for one year and was ordered to pay costs of £11,000.
Read more on the incident from SHPOnline.
NHS Covid-19 App Available for Download
The government’s official coronavirus contact-tracing app is now available for download. More than one million people have downloaded the app for England and Wales within its first day of release.
NHS Covid-19 instructs users to self-isolate for 14 days if it detects they were nearby someone who has the virus. It also has a check-in scanner to alert owners if a venue they have visited is found to be an outbreak hotspot. Anyone aged 16 and over is being asked to install it. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the app “helps us to find more people who are at risk of having the virus” that human contact tracers are unable to find. “Everybody who downloads the app will be helping to protect themselves, helping to protect their loved ones, helping to protect their community because the more people who download it, the more effective it will be,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. The app keeps secret who receives a self-isolation alert.
£2m Fine After Fatal Incident at Manufacturing Site
‘It is not good enough for companies to assume they are doing all they can to control the risk just because there have been no previous incidents,’ says HSE, after a specialist industrial services company worker suffered a fatal injury.
On 18 June 2017, Joseph McDonald, an employee of Leadec Limited, was using high-pressure water jetting equipment to clear paint residue from pipes in the paint shop at a car manufacturing site in Solihull. During the process Mr McDonald was struck by the end of flexi-lance, causing a fatal injury.
The HSE’s investigation found that the company recognised the risks of operating high-pressure water jetting equipment, but they had failed to put in place appropriate measures to mitigate the risks. They had not implemented or enforced the use of various control measures such as a pressure regulator or an anti-ejection device, which were missing at the time of the incident and, training and supervision were also not up to standard.
Leadec Limited of Leadec House, Academy Drive, Warwick pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £2,000,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.
Read more on the incident from SHPOnline.