Somerset farming company fined £16,000 for breach of work at height regulations

Evercreech Park Farms Ltd was recently fined £16,000 and ordered to pay legal costs of just under £3,500 for a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.  

The case involved a contract herdsman working for Evercreech Park Farms, who on the 16 May 2016 fell from a silage clamp and spent four days in intensive care.  He suffered significant nerve damage as well as two fractured vertebrae in his neck and back.

The Health and Safety Executive conducted an investigation and found that insufficient health and safety procedures had been put in place. Specifically, the company had failed to implement a risk assessment for working at height and had failed to implement a safe system of work. 

The Health and Safety Executive also concluded that safer methods of carrying out the work with which the contractor had been tasked were available, such as the use of a mobile elevating platform.  

This case serves as a reminder that every employer must ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised and, as far as possible, carried out in a safe manner.


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