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A private school has been fined £15,000 after a 12-year-old boy caught fire during a chemistry lesson.
Norwich School admitted three health and safety breaches but was cleared of a fourth at Norwich Crown Court.The boy spent 12 days in a specialist burns unit and needed skin grafts after he caught fire reaching over a candle during an experiment two years ago.
On Thursday Recorder Ian Foster directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on the fourth charge.
Prosecutors at Norwich Crown Court had said they could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of failing to carry out a risk assessment for the experiment. The £8000-a-year school was fined after admitting failure to make suitable and sufficient risk assessment regarding dangers to staff.
It also accepted staff had failed to assess risks to pupils and the school had failed to ensure employees had health and safety training repeated to them often enough - particularly fire precautions. The school was also ordered to pay £15,000 towards the prosecution costs.
Workers were exposed to deadly asbestos at a primary school,
Blackpool magistrates heard on 3 August.
They fined Blackpool Council £15,000 for breaching
s3(1) of HSWA 1974 in not ensuring the safety of non-employees at the
school, after it pleaded guilty to the charge. The HSE was awarded its
full costs of £1946.
The court heard that on 15 April 2004, the council had been replacing
kitchen equipment at St Cuthbert’s Primary School in Blackpool. Although
a full asbestos survey had been carried out, it had not been passed on
to the contractors, in a "breakdown of communication," according to
investigating and prosecuting HSE inspector, Allen Shute.
Drilling had taken place during the insertion of electrical cabling into
the ceiling by contractors, which disturbed asbestos insulation board
that had been clearly identified in the survey. Work was stopped when
the council was notified of the asbestos and a specialist contractor
brought in.
The Council said in mitigation that it had put in a new system for
dealing with asbestos since being served an improvement notice in
September 2000.
"The council was normally very good in dealing with asbestos but on this
occasion it went wrong. It was once too often," inspector Shute told SHP.
Safety call after teacher payouts
A teachers' union wants health and safety rules reviewed after winning hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation for three members.
A special needs teacher in south Wales won £250,000 for back injuries, and a craft teacher in Lancashire £130,000 for asthma caused by wood dust.
A Bristol reading tutor was awarded £14,000 after a bookshelf fell on her.
Their union, the NASUWT, said guidelines on working conditions had not been clear.
'Cold comfort'
Its general secretary, Chris Keates, said: "How many more teachers will have to become too ill to work and their expertise be lost to the profession before all employers take their responsibility for the welfare of their employees seriously?"
"Compensation is cold comfort when you can no longer do the job you loved and your health is damaged."
The union declined to name the teachers or schools involved.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said it placed great importance on the health, safety and well-being of the school workforce.
"We continue to work closely with the Health and Safety Executive on disseminating good management practice and are committed to supporting employers in providing safe and appropriate working conditions."
The compensation awards will have come from schools' insurers, rather than out of their normal budgets.
The NASUWT advises its members to avoid taking children on school trips - for fear of being sued if things go wrong.
Renewing its guidance last year, it said: "In an increasingly litigious society which no longer appears to accept the concept of a genuine accident, our first responsibility must be to protect our members' interests."
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Summary |
School caretaker cleaning gutters fell 2.5m through a fragile roof-light causing fractured vertebra. |
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Offence Date |
27/07/2004 |
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Total Fine |
£1,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£1,033.20 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Employees exposed to the risk of asbestos fibres by virtue of: failure to identify type(s) of asbestos to which employees were liable to be exposed; failure to determine the nature and degree of exposure which might have occurred in the course of work; failure to set out the steps to be taken to prevent or reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable that exposure |
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Offence Date |
29/10/1999 |
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Total Fine |
£14,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£7,390.60 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Chef employed by catering contractor in school kitchen tripped on defective (damaged) floor covering and fell striking head on steel table, suffered head injury and unconsciousness. Damage present and known to school for up to 7 months (although risk varied over time), school failed to take suitable remedial action. Breach of Reg 12 of Workplace (H,S&W) Regs. |
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Offence Date |
14/04/2004 |
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Total Fine |
£5,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£2,936.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Failure to ensure that a partially sighted pupil was not exposed to risks whilst using an access ramp whereby pupil fell into an open manhole and suffered serious leg injuries and failure to undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment.. |
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Offence Date |
29/08/2002 |
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Total Fine |
£5,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£0.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Uncontrolled release of Amosite asbestos from kitchen ceiling at St Cuthberts RC Primary School, Blackpool during refurbishment. |
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Offence Date |
15/04/2004 |
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Total Fine |
£15,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£1,946.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Contractors installed overhead projectors into asbestos ceilings. No information re asbestos known to school and therefore none given to contractors. |
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Offence Date |
18/03/2003 |
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Total Fine |
£8,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£5,894.60 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Section 3(1) of Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Eleri Davies a pupil at Cwmllynfell T.W. Primary School fell into the sink of a Santon sterilizing unit containing very hot water. Eleri sustained burns from the back of her knees up to her waist. Unit was 30 years old, located in school hall, was left unattended for long periods and access to the sink was only prevented by a thin metal sheet which was not designed to support persons from falling onto it. Use of the sink had been inadequately risk assessed. After the incident it was replaced by a dishwasher. Prosecution proposed as Neath Port Talbot CBC (as dutyholder) failed to prevent injury to persons not in their employment. |
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Offence Date |
08/07/2003 |
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Total Fine |
£10,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£2,618.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
26/6/2003 Ratho Primary school held an excursion to the East Beach at North Berwick a Primary 1 pupil was found unconscious in water by 2 other teachers from a different school. Councils procedures had not been followed; event not risk assessed and that adequate control measures not implemented to allow event to be run in a safe manner. |
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Offence Date |
26/06/2003 |
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Total Fine |
£3,500.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£0.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Accused is the Head Teacher at Ratho Primary School. Incident occurred at beach at North Berwick where Primary 1 pupil was found unconcious in water by 2 teachers from another school. Head Teacher had specific responsibilities under Council's procedures |
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Offence Date |
26/06/2003 |
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Total Fine |
£750.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£0.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
IP fell off the flat roof (2m) unto a 1m high retaining wall. No risk assessments completed before work begun, edge protection not used. Roofing work was ongoing for 8days. No general risk assessments for premises work. case heard at crawley magistrates on 18/08/04. Guilty Plea. MHSWR 1999 Reg 3 fine £1000.00 CHSW 1996 Reg 6 (1) fine £1000.00 |
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Offence Date |
24/07/2002 |
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Total Fine |
£2,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£1,250.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
IP suffered serious injuries from a toppled Edwards Box & Pan Folder machine whilst the machine was being moved to a new location within the same department. IP was "employed" as a technician by Blackpool & The Fylde College. |
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Offence Date |
01/07/2002 |
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Total Fine |
£7,500.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£6,127.00 |
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Defendant |
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Summary |
Breach of HSW S 3(1). Gamekeeping student shot in head during clay pigeon shoot. Poor management control of the event, including failure to follow explict safety guidance from the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association. |
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Offence Date |
07/03/2002 |
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Total Fine |
£7,000.00 |
Total Costs Awarded to HSE |
£5,000.00 |
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DOCK SMIRK OF GUILTY STAB GIRL
A SCHOOLGIRL who nearly blinded a fellow pupil when she stabbed her in the eye with a pair of scissors smirked in the dock yesterday as she was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause GBH and told she faces being locked up.
A two-and-a-half week trial was told the girl's victim - also 15 - had been subject to years of bullying at school which culminated in the frenzied assault.
The attacker plunged the blades five times into her head and back after earlier taunting her as they queued for lunch. Two of her friends, also both 15, are accused of perverting justice by throwing the scissors over a fence following the attack at the school in Surrey.
Following the guilty verdict, Judge John Crocker ordered a pre-sentence report and released the girl on bail. But he said: "I want her to be under no illusions she has been convicted of a very serious offence. I don't want anyone to think anything other than a custodial sentence would be appropriate."
School bus driver checks warning
There have been more than a dozen cases in the UK in the last three years where school bus drivers have sexually abused children, the BBC has learned.
In one case, where a school bus driver admitted sexually assaulting a girl, 12, it emerged he had two previous convictions for indecent exposure.
The DVLA may now introduce criminal checks for all UK bus drivers.
The Real Story programme also found that spot checks had revealed more than 140 school buses with safety defects.
Victim groomed
In June 2005, Alan Johnson, 57, from Newton Heath, Manchester, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for sexually assaulting the girl on his bus.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard how he used his bus to groom his victim, befriending the young passenger over six months before indecently assaulting her.
Bus company Belle Vue Manchester said it would not have taken Johnson on had it known of his criminal record.
It said some checks had been carried out on Johnson - who worked for the company for 12 years - but they had not picked up his convictions for indecent exposure in 1974 and 1984.
Bosses admitted Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks were only carried out on new employees but said that, in the future, the checks would be carried out on all drivers.
At the moment, checking the criminal records of a school bus driver is not compulsory with some local authorities making no checks at all.
Other councils check minibus drivers but not those driving larger school buses.
And some councils only check drivers if they know they will be left alone with children.
'Unanswered question'
Diane Newell, of independent child protection organisation RWA, called for the introduction of compulsory checks of bus drivers.
"A job like a school bus driver would be an ideal job if you were interested in sexually molesting children because of the obvious access to children," she told BBC News.
"Without these checks there's always going to be an unanswered question as to who exactly are driving our children to school."
A spokesman for DVLA said that, as a result of the Real Story programme findings, it was now considering introducing criminal record checks for all bus drivers before they could get a licence.
The programme, to be broadcast on Monday night, also found that more than 140 school buses - often provided by private companies - had been found with safety defects after spot checks were carried out by the police and vehicle inspectors on nearly 600 buses in the UK.
Common problems included bald tyres, and defective brakes, steering and headlights.
Thirty-six were considered so dangerous they were taken off the road immediately.
Head of the National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum, Chief Supt Geraint Anwyl, told the programme it was only a matter of time before there was a serious accident caused by a defective school bus.
"Our most precious cargo are the schoolchildren of this country and they're travelling in an ageing fleet of buses," he said.
"And as these buses get older, then of course the likelihood of there being more offences on those vehicles increases."
Council fined £12,000 after teacher is injured by unguarded machinery
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council has been fined £12,000 after an employee suffered hand injuries from an unguarded saw.
The incident happened on 18 April 2005 when Steven Walsh, a technician in the design technology department at Counthill community school, was cutting some plywood sheets down for a student.
Walsh's duties included cutting materials for pupils on equipment that they would not themselves be allowed to use and cleaning and maintaining work equipment including tools and benches.
Not noticing that the machine's guard was missing, Walsh cut through the plywood and as he lent over to turn the saw off with his right hand his left hand came in to contact with the unguarded spinning blade causing cuts to the first and second fingers on his left hand.
Enquiries revealed that prior to Walsh's accident the saw had been used by another teacher at the school, who had removed the guard in order to cut a groove in a pupil's work piece. After he had completed his task he turned the saw off but failed to replace the guard.
The HSE's investigation revealed that Walsh had not received any training in the use and maintenance of woodworking machinery since he had joined the school in January 2004. The other teacher, who joined the school in 1980, had not received any further training since that time - a period of 25 years.
Oldham Council was fined £12,000 with costs of £4,884 at Trafford Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to a charge under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health and safety of its employees, including Steven Walsh.
The role of the Council as employer involves overall and ultimate responsibility for health and safety in all its controlled schools.
The accident at Counthill alerted the HSE to the Council's failings and the charges reflect the failing of the LEA to impose, monitor and enforce a uniform safe system of work and minimum levels of training across its controlled schools as a whole rather th