3 companies fined a total of £77,000 after incidents because of poor H&S consultancy

An employer and two safety consultancies were fined after 2 incidents at the Haverhill site of Jan Cavelle Furniture Company.

The circumstances were:

• In 2013, Jan Cavelle Furniture Company commissioned Worksafe Training & Consultancy Ltd., to review all risk assessments and work procedures and to provide updated risk assessments and procedures where required.
• Worksafe Training & Consultancy sub-contracted this work to Tony Baker of Leading Health & Safety Consultants Ltd., who provided risk assessments and recommendations relevant to both the biscuit cutter and the overhead router. 
• The risk assessments and procedures provided by Mr Baker were neither suitable nor sufficient to control risks arising from the operation of these two machines.
• An employee of the company sustained serious injuries when operating a biscuit cutter and the rotating blade made contact with his hand, cutting his thumb to the bone.
• Also, an employee sustained injury to his hand whilst using the cutter of an overhead router and received serious lacerations and crush injuries to his right index finger.
• Both incidents occurred due to the operators adopting unsafe working practices. This was due to a lack of training, inadequate supervision and insufficient and unsuitable risk assessments.

Jan Cavelle Furniture Company was fined £22,000 (inc.costs).

Workplace Training and Consultancy was fined £45,000 (inc.costs).

Health and Safety Consultants was fined £10,000 (inc.costs).