Coldconnection Limited fined £14,928 after ignoring improvement notices for non-functional or defeated interlocks

Food manufacturing company Coldconnection Limited was fined £14,928 (inc. costs) after repeated failures to maintain safety devices on its food processing machinery.

The circumstances were:

• On three separate occasions between July 2008 and March 2016, HSE inspectors visiting the premises of Coldconnection Limited found multiple food processing machines that had non-functional or defeated interlock safety devices. 
• Notices were served on each occasion, requiring the company to remedy the defects.
• On a fourth visit in August 2019, the same issues were found again.

The HSE inspector said:
“While HSE would prefer to engage with businesses proactively through alternative enforcement tools, we can and will bring action through the courts where businesses are found to put their employees at unnecessary risk through repeated contraventions of health and safety law.”