A construction company from Leicestershire has been fined £80,000 after an employee suffered serious injuries falling through a fragile roof.
An employee of Cairns Heritage Homes was carrying out a repair to the roof of Nottingham Recycling Ltd on 1 August 2019 when he fell approximately 7m.
A scaffold tower had been constructed for access to the roof. But the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had put inadequate measures in place to ensure safe working.
Makeshift ladder
The worker accessed the roof and attempted to devise his own ad-hoc working methods. This included constructing a makeshift ladder/staging system from wooden planks.
Cairns Heritage Homes had been contracted to repair the roof of the recycling plant while a ‘bailing machine’ was not being used.
An HSE investigation found serious deficiencies in the planning and supervision of this work, together with the absence of a safe system of work.
There were insufficient measures to prevent a fall or minimise the distance or consequences of a fall, such as safety netting. The employee’s makeshift staging was insufficient and failed to prevent a fall through the fragile roof panels. This resulted in them sustaining serious injuries.
Sentence
Cairns Heritage Homes Ltd, of Rectory Place, Old Parsonage Lane, Hoton, Loughborough, Leicestershire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Nottingham Magistrates’ Court fined the company £80,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £9,981 on 28 September 2022.
HSE Inspector Philip Gratton said: “Work on fragile roofs accounts for around a fifth of all fatal incidents that occur in the construction industry.
“Those in control of work on fragile roofs and other work at height have a responsibility to devise safe methods of work. Also to provide the necessary information, instruction, training, and supervision of their workers.
“If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to this incident, the life-changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”
