The Health & Safety and Regulatory team has once again received widespread acclaim in the latest editions of Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500, outstripping its rivals in the latter with 5 Juniors and 3 Silks identified as “Leaders” within this field.
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Seminar: Thursday 29th November, Manchester

As a finale to the hugely successful 2007 nationwide seminar programme, the Regulatory team is presenting its last seminar of the year on Thursday, 29th November at The V&A Marriott Hotel, Manchester.
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MD was a sole trader carrying on a roofing business. In January 2007, the owner of a property contracted MD to undertake repair work to the roof of his house. MD subcontracted the leadwork to M who himself employed B to assist him. The property had a box gutter running around its perimeter. The box gutter was approximately 370mm wide, although only 250mm of that width was flat. The box gutter contained a number of loose wires and cables. There was a parapet wall which ran around the outside of the gutter and ranged in height from 700mm at the corners to 280mm in other places. The drop from the parapet wall to the ground below was 6.1m.
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The Defendant Company (G) pleaded guilty to charges under s2 and s3 HSWA 1974. The charges arose out of the Defendant’s work for Primark on the refurbishment of the former Littlewoods store at the Harpur Shopping Centre in Bedford. The CDM pre-tender Health and Safety Plan dated February 2005 was sent to G. The Plan referred to asbestos and drew attention to the fact that there may be more asbestos than that identified on the Asbestos Register The Plan also referred to the Type 2 asbestos survey which indicated the presence of asbestos in a large number of locations on all four floors of the building. It showed the ceiling of the ground floor as being made up of AIB ceiling tiles. G’s contract was to carry out the enabling works, including the asbestos removal, for which they proposed sub-contracting the works to a licensed Asbestos Removal Company. G was aware that Primark had appointed a company to carry out a Type 3 Asbestos Survey on the store and at the material time, were awaiting receipt of the report.
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Blackfriars Crown Court (HHJ Pilay), 19th October 2007

Prosecution of company under ss 2 & 3 HSWA 1974. Outdoor Group Limited (“Blacks”) commissioned an asbestos survey for its store in Kensington High Street. The survey revealed acms (lagging) in the Stock Room. The lagging was in a poor condition. OGL was advised to have the lagging removed; to restrict access to the Stock Room & to impound all stock within the stock room as it was contaminated with lagging debris. OGL initially complied with these recommendations but they failed to maintain these control measures.
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The case involved the death of an employee at Corus works. The employee was electrocuted after coming into contact with a live component. SES had failed to ask for a method statement from a Co-Defendant (Alstom) which may have given them cause to enquire further into the nature of the work to be conducted.
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The fatal accident in January 2003 involved a fall from height (8m) causing the death of a 32 year old kiln lining contractor. A new kiln had been installed on a raised platform. As part of associated works, a guard rail was removed on the day before the accident and not replaced. The rail was left off to allow a lift to take place the next day. Instead, tape was placed across the unguarded edge. After completing some work, the Deceased walked along the platform & tripped/slipped in the vicinity of the unguarded edge.
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The Defendant Company (G) was charged with a breach of s2 HSWA 1974 in respect of an accident on 3rd February 2006. At the time of the accident, one of G’s employees was standing near the top of an aluminium ladder power washing brickwork he had just treated with acid. The ladder on which he was working suffered from acid corrosion and snapped in two causing the employee to fall to the ground below. The employee suffered serious spinal injuries. Post accident he was said by the Prosecution to suffer psychiatric problems, constant back pain and other continuing disabilities.
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The defendant company, a firm of property developers, pleaded guilty to a single charge under s. 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 in relation to a building collapse in which a sub-contractor’s employee was crushed, leaving him a tetraplegic.
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The case involved a 23 year-old labourer (subcontractor's employee) using plant in breach of company rules. The bucket of an excavator struck the employee on the back as the employee was stuck in a trench in a dumper truck.
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Death of an employee working for a contractor who died when the chains holding a frame in a crusher house became unhooked and the frame fell upon him.
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Prosecution for a breach of Regulation 8 of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. The Defendant company was engaged as the Principal Contractor on works to a large building in Central London. Part of its works required the lifting and removal of plywood planks from the roof of the building to the ground floor. Its employees were properly trained to do such work. There were also acceptable levels of supervision on site. During the course of removing some planks, the ‘slinger’ secured the scaffold incorrectly. The scaffolding planks then fell several stories killing the Deceased, another employee of the Defendant.
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H was charged under s3 HSWA 1974 and Reg 5(1) PUWER 1998.
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Incident involving a traditional Portuguese sausage dish which was served in a brandy which had been set alight in the kitchen. As the waiter attempted to refill the dish at the table, the food exploded and sprayed burning alcohol over a customer. Complainant sustained extensive burns to face, hands, lower arms and shoulder.
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The Defendant (W) pleaded guilty to 10 counts under s92(1)(c) Trade Marks Act 1994 and s10(1) Video Recordings Act 1984, having been found to be in possession of over 100 counterfeit and/or unclassified DVDs. W had a previous conviction for like offences in 2004.
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The appellant cement manufacturer (C) appealed against a fine of £400,000 imposed by the Crown Court following a guilty plea to an offence of failing to comply with a condition in a permit granted by the Environment Agency under the Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000 reg.32.
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