Skip to main content
IOSH Magazine: Safety, Health and Wellbeing in the world of work - return to the homepage IOSH Magaazine logo
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit @ioshmagazine on Twitter
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on LinkedIn
Gender equality
Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

Main navigation

  • Home
    • Browse previous issues
    • Member accolades
    • Member tributes
  • Health
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Sickness absence
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Rehabilitation
      • Personal injury
      • Return to work
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Achieving Fellowship
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Professional skills
      • Qualifications
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Jobs
  • Covid-19
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Back to basics
    • Book club
    • Infographics
    • Podcast
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Products & Services
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Sickness absence
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Leadership
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Qualifications
      • Professional skills
      • Achieving Fellowship
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Transport and logistics
  • Third sector
  • Retail
  • Mining and quarrying
  • Rail
  • Rehabilitation
    • Personal injury
    • Return to work
  • Utilities
  • Manufacturing and engineering
  • Construction
  • Sector: IOSH Branch
    • Sector: Northern Ireland
    • Sector: Midland
    • Sector: Merseyside
    • Sector: Manchester and North West Districts
    • Sector: Ireland East
    • Sector: Ireland
    • Sector: Edinburgh
    • Sector: Desmond-South Munster
    • Sector: Qatar
    • Sector: Oman
    • Singapore
    • Sector: South Coast
    • Sector: South Wales
    • Sector: Thames Valley
    • Sector: Tyne and Wear
    • Sector: UAE
    • Sector: West of Scotland
    • Sector: Yorkshire
  • Healthcare
  • Sector: Fire
  • Sector: Financial/general services
  • Sector: Energy
  • Education
  • Sector: Communications and media
  • Chemicals
  • Sector: Central government
  • Catering and leisure
  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Sector: Local government
  • Sector: IOSH Group
    • Sector: Financial Services
    • Sector: Sports Grounds and Events
    • Rural industries
    • Sector: railway
    • Public Services
    • Sector: Offshore
    • Sector: Hazardous Industries
    • Sector: Food and Drink
    • Sector: Fire Risk Management
    • Education
    • Construction
    • Sector: Aviation and Aerospace
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Categories
  • News
Catering and leisure

Holiday Inn fined after wedding staircase collapse

Open-access content Matt Lamy — Friday 15th October 2021
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 1 year old.
Images courtesy of Dacorum Borough Council

Image courtesy of Dacorum Borough Council

The owners and operators of the Holiday Inn Hotel in Hemel Hempstead have been ordered to pay almost £160,000 after the wooden staircase that a wedding party was standing on for a group photograph collapsed beneath them.

The incident occurred in 2017 during a wedding that was being held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Breakspear Way, Hemel Hempstead, in south east England. Guests of the couple were told to assemble on exterior wooden stairs for photographs when the upper flight of stairs collapsed. Ten people and part of the stairs fell onto the hard courtyard below. Seven people required hospital treatment, with two suffering long-term injuries. 

Although the stairs were regularly used, including for wedding photos, they had not been properly maintained, and the timber – particularly the posts holding up the stairs – had become very decayed. 

Upon examination by investigators and timber experts, the staircase and adjoining large wooden balcony area were found to be rotten in many places, with parts inappropriately filled with foam filler or with solid filler that had been painted over. Fingers or ballpoint pens could readily be poked into or through the wood in places, and there was a danger of the structure collapsing.

At Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 22 September 2021, HICP Limited, which owned the hotel, was ordered to pay a fine of £80,000 plus costs of £30,000. Interstate United Kingdom Management Limited, which assisted HICP in the management of the hotel, was fined £19,600 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000.

‘External timber structures are notoriously subject to decay and regular and rigorous checks on them need to be conducted by persons competent to do those checks’

Those penalties were arrived at despite the court reducing them to reflect the impact of Covid on hospitality companies’ finances and to allow for the defendants’ previous good characters and early guilty pleas.  

Counsellor Julie Banks, portfolio holder for community and regulatory services at Decorum Borough Council, said: ‘I consider the safety of local residents and visitors to be an imperative. We will vigorously investigate and take appropriate enforcement action where serious safety failings lead to serious injuries or deaths. 

‘All those involved in running businesses and operations should understand that they may face prosecution for their part in such failings, as the two companies did here, facing substantial penalties despite the allowance rightly made for the impact of Covid on hotel businesses in recent times.’

Dacorum Borough Council’s food, health and safety lead officer, Rebecca Connolly, who investigated the incident, said: ‘Those who operate premises which they charge the public to use are required by law to put in place adequate arrangements to monitor the state of those premises and to ensure necessary repair or replacement work is identified and done. 

‘External timber structures are notoriously subject to decay and regular and rigorous checks on them need to be conducted by persons competent to do those checks.’

In 2017, a family attending a wedding were seriously injured when the lift they were in fell four floors and hit the end of the shaft. Read the story here.

You may also be interested in...

Rotherham Council

 Worker balanced in wooden crate on forklift to access crane

Tuesday 12th October 2021
Rotherham’s Principal Environmental Health Officer Adrian Monkhouse explains how a crane engineer’s six-metre fall resulted in fines totalling £100,000 and a renewed focus on contractor safety.
Open-access content
Image courtesy of the HSE

 £40k fine in fall paralysis case at Watford FC

Tuesday 19th October 2021
A company has been fined £40,000 after a worker fell 36ft (11 metres) and was left paralysed from the waist down when the concrete floor he was working on collapsed beneath him.
Open-access content
web_looking-up-elevator-shaft_credit_iStock-1197674133

 £90k fine for care home lift shaft fall

Monday 25th October 2021
A care home firm in Flintshire, Wales has been fined £90,000 after one of its staff – a newly-recruited care home manager – fell down a lift shaft.
Open-access content
Three Ds Mining

 £100,000 fine in mine collapse case may never be paid

Tuesday 28th September 2021
A small-scale mining company that was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws after one of its workers was injured and trapped in a mine collapse, has been fined £100,000, despite the firm facing liquidation.
Open-access content
SWP-3

 £40k fine in case of warehouse operative's 5m ladder fall

Monday 1st November 2021
A company that manufactures and supplies artificial trees has been fined £40,000 after one of its staff fell five metres from a ladder and suffered serious injuries while trying to retrieve stock.
Open-access content
web_nursing-home_credit_iStock-859856574

 Care provider fined £20,000 after employee was raped

Friday 24th September 2021
A care company that provides housing support services for vulnerable adults and children has been fined £20,000 after one of its employees was raped by a service user, despite concerns being raised about this particular service user for more that 25 years.
Open-access content
Topics
News
Catering and leisure
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Health and Safety Improvement Manager

Leeds
£35000 - £50000 per annum
Reference
5452992

SHEQ Systems Advisor

Up to £40000.00 per annum + Car Allowance
Reference
5452988

Senior Health and Safety Manager

Reading
Up to £65000.00 per annum + Great Car Allowance & Benefits
Reference
5452983
See all jobs »

Sign up for regular e-alerts

Receive the latest news and features, free to your inbox

Sign up

Subscribe to IOSH magazine

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
IOSH Covers
​
FOLLOW US
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel +44 (0)20 7880 6200
​

IOSH

About IOSH
Become a member
IOSH Events
MyIOSH

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to IOSH magazine
Write for IOSH magazine

IOSH Magazine

Health
Safety
Management
Skills
IOSH Jobs

© 2023 IOSH • IOSH is not responsible for the content of external sites

ioshmagazine.com and IOSH Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ