Dallas McMillan's Blog

A self-employed blacksmith and fabricator has been fined after one of his employees was severely injured when he fell more than seven metres from a roof he was working on.

Martin Mundie, 23, from Aberdeenshire, was part of a team carrying out work at a farm to convert a former pig shed into a workshop.

On 10th March 2009, Mr Mundie and three other workers climbed a ladder onto the roof to begin replacing the sheets and capping. A short time into the work, there was a loud crack and one of Mr Mundie's colleagues turned around to see him disappearing through a skylight. He fell approximately eight metres to the concrete floor below.

He sustained a broken arm and wrist, and needed a bone graft as well as two operations to insert three plates and six pins. He was off work for ten months and still has continuing pain in his arm with numbness and limited movement, as well as the scars left by his operations.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that at no time before work started, or while it was ongoing, had the employer assessed any of the risks involved or put a safe system of work in place. HSE inspectors also found that none of the workers had any safety provision while on the roof.

He was fined £4,500 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Falls from height are the most common cause of fatal injuries in the workplace. In 2009/10, 38 people in Britain died after work-related falls from height.

As part of its Eighth Programme of Law Reform, the Scottish Law Commission conducted a short-term project on partnership criminal liability, the results of which have now been published in the Commission's Report on the Criminal Liability of Partnerships.

The project was prompted by the failed prosecution following the fatal fire at the Rosepark nursing home in 2004. The nursing home was run by a partnership, which was dissolved after the fire, and attempts to indict the dissolved partnership, and/or the members of it, in relation to the causes of the fire were unsuccessful. It became clear that the traditional concepts of the law of partnership did not fit easily into the modern regulatory structure within which many of these organisations operate.

The Commission's report addresses this problem and recommends that it should remain competent to prosecute a partnership during a period of five years following its dissolution.

The Report also includes a draft Bill which would give effect to its recommendations.

In 2003, the Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission published their joint report on Partnership Law. This recommended comprehensive reform of the law of partnership, including the circumstances and effects of dissolution. The Scottish Law Commission's preferred long-term solution to the issue identified in the Rosepark case would be the implementation by the UK Government of the recommendations in the joint report on Partnership law.

The owner of a Blackpool double-glazing firm has appeared in court after one of his employees was seriously injured in a fall from a ladder.

The 68-year-old fell nearly five metres and landed on a concrete patio after climbing up a ladder to measure a bathroom window on a house in his village. The employee suffered a broken knee and ankle, four broken ribs, a punctured lung and a badly damaged right foot.

The owner was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the worker had been allowed to work alone without anyone at the foot of the ladder to stop it falling.

Blackpool Magistrates’ Court heard the worker has still been unable to return to work due to the extent of his injuries following the fall.

The owner pleaded guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure the work was properly planned, adequately supervised and carried out in a safe manner. He was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 in prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Allen Shute, said:

"Workers can easily be killed or seriously injured in a fall of just a few metres. It’s therefore vital employers properly manage work at height."

Last year, 38 workers were killed in Great Britain as a result of a fall and more than 4,000 suffered major injuries.