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
  • Topics
  • Safety
  • Risk management
  • Lone workers
Personal injury
Personal protective equipment
Slips and trips
Features

Kennedy v Cordia: Slip case

Open-access content Sunday 20th March 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

An employer was liable for the injuries of a home care assistant who slipped on an icy pavement when visiting a client, the UK's highest civil court has ruled.

The Supreme Court held that Glasgow City Council-owned Cordia (Services) failed to provide suitable protective footwear to Tracy Kennedy despite the long-lasting severe weather. The healthcare worker was wearing flat shoes with some ridging and the pavement had not been gritted or salted.

Kennedy claimed damages against Cordia for the incident, which happened in December 2010.

At the original hearing, the court decided in the claimant's favour but its decision was reversed by the Inner House of Scotland's Court of Session. Kennedy took the case to the Supreme Court, which said it was the employer's responsibility to protect employees when they are out and about.

The court was asked to consider two main questions:

  • whether evidence of an expert witness was admissible -- the court gave some favourable guidance on the evidence of skilled witnesses, which makes it unlikely their use will diminish in health and safety cases and personal injury claims
  • whether Cordia had been in breach of its statutory duties or negligent.

The case was based on breaches of Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, which requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of work risks, and regulation 4(1) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, which requires suitable personal protective equipment to be provided to employees.

The court decided that the arm's-length care services company had breached its statutory duties. It was obvious that Kennedy could slip and fall on snow and ice. Not only did Cordia have previous experience of such accidents, their possibility had been identified in two risk assessments in the previous five years.

Crucially, that risk had not been properly evaluated. Not only was the possibility of injury very high, but it could be serious and include fractures and head injuries.

Despite this, no consideration "was given to the possibility of individual protective measures, before relying on the measure of last resort, namely giving appropriate instructions to employees," said the Supreme Court's judgment. Even then, the instructions given, in the form of advice to wear appropriate footwear, provided no specification of what might be appropriate. So Cordia was in breach of Regulation 3(1) of the management regulations.

Kennedy was exposed to the risk of slips and falls "whilst at work". That phrase referred to the time of exposure to risk, not the cause of the risk. The employee was at work while travelling between clients' homes. "Whilst at work" also refers not only to risks associated with the nature of the work but also those associated with the natural environment in which the work takes place.

Ill shod

Cordia did not provide suitable protective equipment to reduce the risk. Nor was the risk controlled by other means "equally or more effective" as the PPE regulations require. Accordingly, the Supreme Court found that regulation 4(1) of the PPE Regulations had also been breached.

The court also held that Cordia had been negligent at common law on three grounds:

  • it was a "fundamental principle" that "an employer was bound to take reasonable care for the safety of his workmen"
  • "-¦ a reasonably prudent employer will conduct a risk assessment in connection with its operations so that it can take suitable precautions to avoid injury to its employees -¦ the whole point of a risk assessment is to identify whether the particular operation gives rise to any risk to safety and, if so, what is the extent of that risk, and what can and should be done to minimise or eradicate the risk
  • if Cordia had carried out a proper risk assessment, it would have enquired into and learned that there was a potential means of reducing the risk. It did not and so was in breach of its common law duty.

The court's finding on the common law case reversed what might have been a severe reining in of employer liability in this area if the Inner Court's judgment on the earlier appeal was upheld. The Inner Court had noted: "In relation to some matters, care for health and safety is best left in the hands of the individual adult concerned. The relationship of employer and employee is not to be treated as being the equivalent to that of nursery teacher and pupil, or that of parent and child."

The Supreme Court's judgment places responsibility for workers when they are out and about in the public realm squarely back in employers' laps. The case will make for uncomfortable reading for some organisations and is another reminder to update risk assessments regularly, to evaluate risk properly and explore any means to reduce it.

Simply conducting a tick-box exercise and then placing the risk assessment in a tidy file will not suffice to protect employers from liability, whether civil, as in the case of Cordia, or criminal.

You may also be interested in...

 Reyes Gonzalez, Heineken

Tuesday 15th March 2016
Words: Louis WustemannPictures: Dave PelhamManagers in large businesses sometimes have the word “global” bolted on to their titles when they are responsible for a division in their own country plus a couple of further flung factories. In the case of Reyes Gonzalez, who works for the Dutch brewer Heineken, the title global safety manager is no hyperbole.
Open-access content

 Case study | Lovell: A new broom

Tuesday 22nd March 2016
Words: Stephen MarriottCalls to “bin the broom” in the construction industry have never resonated with Alex Wood. “I’ve always thought it’s such a useful bit of kit,” he says. “You can’t vacuum up lumps of wood and brick.”But Wood, Tech IOSH, who is regional business systems manager at housebuilder Lovell, part of the Morgan Sindall group, recognises that dry sweeping the residual dust that escapes the methods higher up the hierarchy, such as extraction on cutting machines and vacuuming, sends hazardous clouds into the air.
Open-access content

 Shielding the Crown

Wednesday 23rd March 2016
Words: Lucie PontingThe Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) decision to issue a Crown censure to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month over the deaths of three army reservists in the Brecon Beacons (see news, page 5) brought the concept of Crown immunity to public attention and triggered renewed calls for its removal.
Open-access content

 Case study: Universal language

Thursday 3rd March 2016
Words: Stephen Marriott What would you do if you had to alert local workers in multiple countries, many of them unable to read even their native languages, to serious safety and health threats on remote sites? If you were imaginative and watched the right TV shows, you might come up with a suite of visual instructions that are as striking as they are functional. The man who did just that is Daan van Wieringen, safety manager at Dutch environmental consultancy Tauw.
Open-access content

 Andy Sneddon, Vinci

Tuesday 1st March 2016
The health and safety director at the world’s largest construction contractor (by turnover) is not a big fan of the concept of zero accidents. “It reduces health and safety to the worst excesses of Saturday night talent shows,” says Andy Sneddon CMIOSH, “where ever-greater outlandish claims for our commitment become the norm. It’s not based on an intelligent view of what’s achievable.”Of big corporations’ initiatives, he says: “The marketing is almost comic sometimes. I’m waiting for someone to break cover and declare they are going to go below zero.”
Open-access content

 Executive engagement: A foot in the door

Sunday 28th February 2016
Words: Dr Jennifer Lunt, Dr Mike Webster, Malcolm StavesLast month we highlighted some common obstacles that prevent board executives prioritising safety and health, and illustrated them with reference to three high-profile incidents. This time we present potential solutions.
Open-access content
Topics
Lone workers
Personal injury
Personal protective equipment
Slips and trips
Features
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