Health and safety reporting requirements emphasised in HSE decision

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/health-and-safety-reporting-requirements-emphasised-in-hse-decision

The failure to report an accident on a UK construction site has led to a 24-week prison sentence for the owner of a building company, in a case highlighting the need for incidents at work to be notified to the authorities.

Westminster Magistrates Court handed down the sentence following an investigation by the British Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the 2019 incident, in which an excavator trapped worker Simon Lewis’s leg and caused it to require amputation.

Paul Adams, trading as Surrey Conversions of Sutton Common Road, Sutton pleaded guilty to a breach of regulation 3(1) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013. He received a 24-week custodial sentence and was ordered to pay costs of £2,033.

Adams had not reported the incident to the HSE as required under the regulations, and had not investigated it. The HSE said an investigation was only launched after Lewis complained, at which point it was almost impossible to uncover evidence as the building work at the site in question was almost completed.

The HSE also said there was no health and safety related documentation and no employer’s insurance cover for Lewis to claim against. Adams had not obtained any health and safety related training during his 50 years in the construction industry.