An Essex manufacturing company has been fined £750,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,511 following an incident, in September 29013, when a worker was fatally crushed after his arm was caught in a powered roller. The incident occurred because a critical guard was not in place.

Two companies have been fined a total of £1.3million following the death of a scaffolder who fell to his death after being struck by falling debris inside an industrial tower. The HSE Inspector prosecuting stated that this was an entirely preventable incident and proper planning and protection from the foreseeable danger of falling material would have prevented this from happening.

A food company and their contractor have been fined a total of £165,000 and ordered to pay £18,000 costs after asbestos was disturbed during building work and only identified by chance when an asbestos removal contractor attended site.

HSE found that the company was undertaking a project to remove tanks from a factory which required the demolition of an external wall. They failed to provide an asbestos survey to enable their contractor to quote and plan appropriately for the work to be undertaken.

When the wall was demolished asbestos insulation board at the top of the wall was unknowingly broken up. A skip of demolition debris was found to contain asbestos insulation board, which had been identified by an asbestos contractor who had been called to site.

Yorkshire Water Services Ltd has been fined £600,000 after an ageing sewage pipe burst and killed hundreds of fish in a Wakefield lake. The company was also ordered to pay investigation and prosecution costs of £24,000 to the Environment Agency.

Sometime on or before 5 October 2013 a rising main sewage pipe from the company’s Shay Lane pumping station burst and raw sewage flowed into Drain Beck, which feeds a fishing lake in Walton Park.