A stonework company has been fined for failing to comply with a Health & Safety Executive enforcement notice.
A visiting Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector had served an improvement notice in August 2017 after finding a stone-cutting saw was not properly guarded.
At a follow-up visit in November 2017, temporary fencing was seen to have been moved to one side and no longer offer protection to employees using the saw – the court heard they were exposed to the risk of amputation.
Guilty Plea
Tiles & Tops Limited pleaded guilty to breaking an improvement notice served by an inspector. The notice cited contravention of the Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
The firm was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,260.
The HSE said the company “completely failed to grasp the importance of installing and maintaining basic but essential guards to prevent access to the dangerous parts of machinery”.
It added “Despite being given several weeks to rectify the situation, the temporary fencing put in place by the company was clearly inadequate”.
Warning
The HSE say companies should be aware it may bring prosecutions where duty holders:
- continually fail to address risks in the workplace; or
- fail to respond to enforcement notices.
This demonstrates how important it is that enforcement notices are not ignored.
