A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Greater Manchester Police was conducted after a three-year-old died on the 16th July 2022. The investigation identified that Mr Speakman failed to ensure there was a safe segregated area for Albie to play in. Instead, Albie was able to move around the farm while vehicles were being driven / operated. Mr Speakman had borrowed a telehandler from a neighbour, and while he had previously used the vehicle, he was not appropriately trained. Additionally, the telehandler being driven was in poor condition, it was missing a wing mirror on the passenger’s side, and the driver’s side wing mirror was dirty – severely reduc..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released the 2023/24 statistics for UK work-related fatal injuries and according to these statistics, there were 138 deaths across all UK workplaces in 2023–24 with the construction industry accounting for more than a third of the total with 51 fatalities. The new figures, which can be found here, show that the annual number of work-related fatalities has remained broadly similar for over a decade. Additionally, as per previous years, male workers continue to account for the vast majority of fatal injuries with 95% of those recorded in the year being men. Within the statistics published is one that truly horrified me. A staggering 34% of work..

An engineering firm in Perth has been fined £10,000 after an employee lost his little and ring finger. The worker, employed by Edwards Engineering (Perth) Limited, had been carrying out maintenance work on a grain dryer at East of Scotland Farmers on 28 June 2020. He inadvertently placed his hand into the blades of an unguarded rotary fan in the grain dryer. The fan was rotating at 1200 revolutions per minute when it came into contact with the worker’s hand. He was off work for seven weeks following the incident. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into this incident found Edwards Engineering (Perth) Limited had failed to risk assess the task that the emplo..

A company involved in fruit and vegetable production has been fined £320,000 after a man “who always put family first” was killed at a site in Burscough. Francis Schlachter, known as Frank, suffered severe head injuries when he fell from a skip at a farm operated by M.A.Forshaw Limited on 3 January 2020. The 64-year-old from Southport was described as ‘a rock’ by his wife of 35 years Linda, who said how much he would be missed by his friends and family. Frank had been working at the site off Marsh Moss Lane, tipping food waste into a skip from a container attached to a forklift truck (FLT). The container could not be securely attached to the FLT, which was known to detach from ..

Farmers are being reminded they must change their attitude towards safety as Britain’s workplace regulator readies itself for a wave of inspections in the coming months. Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will visit farms across England, Scotland and Wales as part of a push to change the culture in the industry and check for compliance with long standing legal requirements. People on farms are 21 times more likely to be killed in a workplace accident than other industries. In total, there have been 161 deaths on Britain’s farms over the last five years – an average of 26 people each year. This includes members of the public and children. HSE pla..

A farm has been fined £60,000 following the death of a 43-year-old father-of-three who was electrocuted on the 13th May 2021 by a power line. Patrick Rice was unloading stone when the hydraulic arm of the dumper truck came into contact with 11kV overhead power lines at VB Farms LLP's in Devon. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident found VB Farms LLP failed to carry out an assessment of how the work could be completed safely and did not consider the dangers involved with working near an overhead power line. Accidental contact with live overhead power lines kill and cause many serious injuries every year, additionally getting too close to an overhead..

A three-year-old child was among 27 people killed in agriculture-related activities in the last 12 months. Britain's workplace regulator has called for a cultural shift away from poor behaviours due to the rate of fatalities, which has remained high with little change. The worker fatal injury rate is 21-times higher than the average five-year annual rate across all other industries. Sue Thompson, the Head of Agriculture, at the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) has said: “The number of fatalities remains stubbornly high and the rate of workplace fatal injury in agriculture still remains the highest of any sector." “I encourage everyone to think differently about safety, do..

The Health and Safety Executive have launched a campaign called "Work Right - Agriculture" in a bid to reduce farm vehicle deaths and injuries Vehicles play a key role in farm work but incidents involving vehicles are the number one cause of deaths and serious injuries on British farms. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain's workplace safety regulator, is calling on everyone in the farming community to do what they can to reduce the number of injuries involving vehicles and save lives. HSE is this week launching a farm vehicle safety campaign and has created a website which brings together lots of great advice on using vehicles safely on farms. Vehicle incidents are the numbe..