A north-east England confectionary manufacture has been fined £800,000 after an employee suffered life-changing injuries. The incident happened on November 30, 2020 when the man was drawn into a roller mechanism on a conveyor machine.  A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the company had not properly assessed the risk created by the rollers under the conveyor belt and failed to guard the roller. It was foreseeable that access to this area would be required and that there was a clear risk of injury from coming into contact with this roller. The company had previously been prosecuted following a similar incident at another factory.

Two West Midlands companies have been fined a total of £359,000 plus costs after an HGV driver suffered fatal chest injuries sustained while unstrapping a load.  An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that arrangements for planning and restraining the load were inadequate.  They failed to ensure that the stability of goods was independent of the load straps, so that release of the straps did not allow the load to fall from the vehicle.

A logistics company has been fined £133,000 after excavation work, carried out in 2018 at its rail and container freight facility, exposed staff to asbestos.  An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found an asbestos survey had not been carried out and the workers involved had not received any training in relation to asbestos.  In addition, the company failed to report the incident correctly.

A Welsh health board was fined £160,000 after three employees were diagnosed with Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome.  An investigation carried out by the HSE found that employees were required to operate handheld power tools such as lawn mowers, strimmers and hedge cutters without carrying out an assessment of the risks from exposure to vibration. There was no monitoring, or any estimate of exposure to vibration, even though employees, particularly during the summer months, operated handheld power tools for several hours a day. It also found that the health board had ignored requests from its own occupational health department to conduct a risk assessment.