North-west chemical company fined £1.25 Million

A chemical company, operating in the north-west of England, has been fined £1.25 Million following the death, in November 2016, of a scaffolding contractor. An investigation by HSE found that there was no permit in place for the work to be carried out on what was a live chemical plant.  The scaffolding team had not given a clear understanding of the risks in question or how they might be controlled. The deceased had only received a brief induction when he started work on the site some months before.  Crucially, he had not been warned of the specific hazards in the area in which he was to work or the fact that the process was not fully contained.