Company fined £16,181 for non-compliance with Improvement Notices

Kitchen worktop manufacturing company, The Solid Surface Shop UK Ltd was fined £16,181(inc. costs)  for non-compliance of Improvement Notices and failure to effectively manage health and safety.

The circumstances were:

• The HSE inspected the premises in March 2016.
• There was a poor standard of health and safety management including significant accumulations of dust.
• Local exhaust ventilation units present were not subject to thorough examination and test.
• No CoSHH assessments had been completed.
• The company was served with five Improvement Notices which were hand delivered to site and discussed with two of the directors. 
• The notices required thorough examination of local exhaust ventilation, monitoring for dusts including respirable crystalline silica, a system to manage respiratory protective equipment and assessments of the risk from noise and hand arm vibration.
• Despite extensions to the compliance dates for all the notices being given, repeated phone calls, emails and letters, no appeals or evidence of compliance was ever received by HSE. 
• A company representative attended an interview under caution but did not provide any reasonable explanations for the non-compliance.

The HSE inspector said after the hearing:
“Improvement notices must be complied with. Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards”