Templetown Canopies fined £13,000 for a lack of adequate controls for styrene fumes.

Templetown Canopies Limited, a manufacturing company based in South Shields was fined £13,000 (inc.costs) for health and safety failures.  FFI is additional to this.

The circumstances were:

• The company used styrene in their production of fibre glass door and window canopies. 
• This substance is hazardous to health and exposure can cause irritation to the nose, throat and lungs.
• It can also have a neurological effect including difficulty in concentrating, drowsiness, headaches and nausea.
• The company should have had an extraction system to remove the fume and provide masks with the correct filters to prevent operators inhaling it.
• An inspection was carried out on 1 May 2013 and an improvement notice was served on 3 May 2013.
• The company did not take action to comply with the Improvement Notice until they moved premises in March 2015.
• Between May 2013 and February 2015, Templetown Canopies did not adequately control exposure of their employees to styrene. 

The HSE Inspector said: “ Workers’ health was put at risk from exposure to styrene for a period of 22 months, even after the company had been made aware of the actions it needed to take. Whilst HSE is sympathetic to the pressures faced by small businesses, this is simply not acceptable. Employers need to take action to ensure they are providing adequate control to protect the health of their employees.”

Herbs in a Bottle were fined £50,000 after a worker died from exposure to a toxic gas.

Herbs in a Bottle Limited, a medicinal herbal manufacturing company in Lincolnshire, was fined £49,842 (inc.costs) after a worker died from exposure to a toxic gas.

The circumstances were:

• On 2 September 2014, Karl Brader was using cleaning chemicals to clean a changing room.
• No Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) assessment had been carried out.
• Mr Brader had not been trained in the safe use of chemicals.
• He was exposed to a toxic gas (likely to be chlorine) and died at the scene.

The HSE Inspector said:
“This was a tragic industrial incident that was entirely preventable had suitable precautions been taken. Karl Brader had not received any training in the safe use of hazardous chemicals and as a result died from the exposure to a toxic gas. Companies should ensure that they assess all the risks associated with the use of dangerous chemical and that exposure to their employees is either eliminated or minimised.”

Concrete Fabrications Ltd., fined £107,000 after worker's arm was torn off in conveyor

Concrete Fabrications Ltd., a Bristol based manufacturer of concrete products was fined £107,758 (inc.costs) after a worker’s arm was torn off when it was pulled into the rotating tail pulley of a conveyor belt.

The circumstances were:

• On 18 May 2015 a worker had to adjust tensioning rods which were located inside the machine’s guards, in close proximity to the conveyor belt and rotating tail pulley.
• A sufficient risk assessment would have identified the risks associated with tracking conveyor belts, and identified appropriate control measures.
• There needs to be clear procedures regarding maintenance and adjustments of machinery. 
• Arrangements should be in place to ensure that machinery is not run without the necessary guarding in place, and that clear isolation and lock off procedures exist.
• However, an unsafe system of work existed for the maintenance of machinery, in so much that the dangerous moving parts of the machine were exposed during maintenance operations.
• The worker noticed that aggregate had built up on the tensioning rod and he tried to knock off the material with a hammer so he could use a spanner to adjust the rod. 
• However, the hammer was dragged into the rotating machinery along with the employee’s arm which was severed between the shoulder and the elbow.

Pauls Malt fined over £100,000 for fall due to poor work at height method of work

Pauls Malt Limited was fined £102,257 (inc.costs) after an agency worker was injured when he fell from a ladder.

The circumstances were:

• The worker was in the process of checking the fill level of the malt in a container at the West Knapton malting factory, near Malton. 
• The container was fitted with a full-size fabric liner with a high level loading flap which would be zipped up once the container was full.
• The company had not carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the work at height involved in closing the zipped flaps on the fabric liners.
• A system of work had developed which involved propping a 4-metre long ladder against the rear of the container to gain access to the zip-up flap. The ladder was too long for this purpose and was propped at too shallow an angle.
• On 6 May 2015, the worker was checking the fill level when the foot of the ladder slipped outwards, causing the agency worker to fall 2m with the ladder.
• He sustained two fractures to his right foot and bruising to his chest and head injuries.

Lack of non-standard work system nearly causes death

Essential Supply Products Limited, a Worcestershire-based manufacturer was fined £22,714 (inc. costs) after a worker nearly lost his life when a door collapsed and pinned him to a baler.

The circumstances were:

• On 5 May 2015, two maintenance workers were replacing the bottom of a heavy sectional door at the factory.
• Managers had failed to recognise the risks involved in the maintenance work that was taking place. 
• There was no appropriate equipment, instruction or training provided to the workers to ensure the method of work was safe.
• While removing the hinges and brackets the door collapsed, pinning one of the workers between it and a baler that was next to the door.
• The worker suffered serious injuries including broken ribs and asphyxiation which led to a lost of consciousness for eight hours. He has since made a full recovery.

This is a classic example of non-standard work. Refer to SSS White Paper 23 for how to control non-standard operations.

Solution to HMRC's RTI program installation

For those, like me, that get an error message with HMRC's RTI program on a new computer (and get no help from HMRC) then this is the solution from Phil Shepton:

Solved this one on Win 10 64bit saying I haven't got permission. This was a new laptop.

You do not need to alter any permissions at all or mess with security in any way. This is a totally safe and simple process. It does not alter windows files or settings in any way.

Install the RTI as usual and run it, when it says you don't have permission to access database just close RTI.

Open windows explorer, at the top go to 'view' and tick 'hidden items' and 'file extensions'

1) Get a current backup which is in zip format and open it in windows explorer. You will see three files.

2) Highlight and Copy these three files. (no need to extract them first, just copy them)

3) Go to c:\users\**your username**\appdata\roaming\HMRC\payetools-rti folder

4) delete the files in here including the sqlite3.db file which is causing the problem

5) paste the files from your backup in this folder (includes a new sqlite3.db file)

RTI will now open

Open RTI Basic tools and your current data will load.

Hope it helps, it took an hour to figure this way of doing it, , but at least it works.

Solution to HMRC's RTI program installation

For those, like me, that get an error message with HMRC's RTI program on a new computer (and get no help from HMRC) then this is the solution from Phil Shepton:

Solved this one on Win 10 64bit saying I haven't got permission. This was a new laptop.

You do not need to alter any permissions at all or mess with security in any way. This is a totally safe and simple process. It does not alter windows files or settings in any way.

Install the RTI as usual and run it, when it says you don't have permission to access database just close RTI.

Open windows explorer, at the top go to 'view' and tick 'hidden items' and 'file extensions'

1) Get a current backup which is in zip format and open it in windows explorer. You will see three files.

2) Highlight and Copy these three files. (no need to extract them first, just copy them)

3) Go to c:\users\**your username**\appdata\roaming\HMRC\payetools-rti folder

4) delete the files in here including the sqlite3.db file which is causing the problem

5) paste the files from your backup in this folder (includes a new sqlite3.db file)

RTI will now open

Open RTI Basic tools and your current data will load.

Hope it helps, it took an hour to figure this way of doing it, , but at least it works.