Personal injury

Responsibility for the exchange of documents between parties in an injury claim may fall upon a safety professional. So what has to be submitted and are there grounds for refusal?

The case of a viola player whose loss of hearing was deemed a workplace-related injury has prompted the Royal Opera House to review its safety and health processes.

A Yorkshire food manufacturer has been fined £1.8m after two employees sustained serious injuries after falling through a roof light while fixing a leaky roof.

A Cheshire manufacturing company has been fined £14,000 after an employee sliced his knuckle on a metal cutting saw.

Two recycling companies have been fined in separate cases for injuries to employees who were trying to remove waste material from plant.

A building company found guilty of failing to safely manage work on a construction site has been fined £900,000 after a bricklayer died from fatal head injuries.

A repair and maintenance company has been fined £150,000 after a worker fell 2 m off a ladder while working on a roof.

Every year, an average of 4,400 people aged between 25-64 in England die as the result of accidents, including those at work, and there are 240,000 annual accident-related hospital admissions, RoSPA notes in a new national strategy published on 11 October. Although most incidents occur outside work, the knock-on financial effect on businesses is huge.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on the Manual Handling Operations Regulations (L23) (bit.ly/2uDfmhH) says that “providing information and training alone will not ensure safe manual handling” and that “a good handling technique is no substitute for other risk-reduction steps”.