A West Yorkshire recycling company was fined £120,000 after an employee was severely injured when batteries weighing at least 300kg fell on him whilst carrying out a restacking operation. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the site was overstocked, bags of batteries had been stacked in an unsafe manner and there was no specific documented risk assessments or safe systems of work for the correct stacking and storage of batteries. This was not an isolated incident.

A water company was fined £330,000 after raw sewage escaped into a stream near Southampton for what the company admitted could have been nearly 20 hours.  An investigation by the Environment Agency found that relay equipment at a pumping station had been wrongly programmed. This led to a pump failing. When a second one would not start, sewage and other hazardous substances were diverted up through two manholes, across fields and into the stream.  The discharge resulted in a significant fish kill and the temporary closure of a water sports centre.

A recycling company in Wales has been fined £300,000 after an employee was killed by a shovel loader whilst carrying out routine maintenance tasks in a wood yard. The HSE investigation also found that although a risk assessment had been produced prior to the work commencing, it was not suitable nor sufficient and did not include work taking place in the wood yard. Additionally, the risk assessment should have identified there was a risk to pedestrians where there were moving vehicles.

A Herefordshire steel manufacturing company has been fined £120,000 after a worker was killed after becoming trapped between two heavy steel beams. An investigation by the HSE found that the risk assessment for the task in question had been not been carried out by competent person. Employees had not been provided with sufficient information and training about carrying out lifting operations at the site.  In addition, the company had not properly planned the lifts and did not have a system for ensuring that there were adequately qualified supervisors present during lifting operations.