Pembrokeshire refinery fined £400,000

The operator of a major Pembrokeshire refinery has been fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £60,614 following the failure of an access walkway which resulted in an operator suffering fractures and lacerations to both legs and a dislocated knee.  The court heard that the company had:

• failed to carry out a sufficient risk assessment of the use and operation of the access tower,
• failed to provide adequate information, instruction and training to employees as to the safe use and operation of the access tower
• failed to carry out adequate investigations into three previous and related incidents
• failed to review the check-list risk assessment in light of those incidents
• failed to act on the recommendations of their inspection contractor
• failed to install any means of detection or prevention of slack cable in the mechanism
• failed to detect that the access tower was neither CE marked, nor subject to a Declaration of Conformity, as required.