Enforcement Notices After Falls and Unguarded Machinery
HSE inspected a 60-unit housing site after a complaint. The inspector served two prohibition notices: one on a scaffold with missing guardrails and one on a bench saw with the guard removed. She also served an improvement notice requiring health surveillance for workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica during cutting. The director wants to appeal all three notices because 'the scaffold was fixed the same day and the saw is only used occasionally'. The site manager asks whether scaffold work can restart once the guardrails are replaced, and whether the bench saw can be used for a 'small job' while the notice is in force. The company has also received an invoice for £1,850 under the Fee for Intervention scheme and disputes that there was a material breach.
1. Explain the legal effect of each notice and the company's options, including appeal deadlines and whether an appeal suspends the notice.
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A prohibition notice under HASAWA s22 stops the activity immediately because the inspector believes there is a risk of serious personal injury. It can be appealed to an employment tribunal within 21 days in England and Wales, but an appeal does not suspend it. Work on the scaffold and the bench saw must not resume until the inspector withdraws the notice or the appeal succeeds. The company can make the scaffold safe and ask the inspector to withdraw, but it should not assume that fixing the defect automatically lifts the notice. The improvement notice under s21 requires compliance by the date stated; it can also be appealed within 21 days, and an appeal suspends it until the appeal is determined. Appealing 'everything' is not a strategy: for the prohibition notices, the immediate route is to remedy and seek withdrawal; for the improvement notice, the company should check whether it can comply by the date before deciding to appeal. The director's comment that the saw is only used occasionally does not make the notice invalid.
2. Advise the site manager on what must happen before scaffold work and bench-saw use can restart, and what evidence should be kept.
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Scaffold: a competent person must inspect and hand over the scaffold after guardrails are replaced, and the principal contractor should photograph the repair and record the inspection. The site manager should write to the inspector requesting withdrawal and must not restart until withdrawal is confirmed. Bench saw: the guard must be refitted and the machine inspected under PUWER; the operator must be trained; again, the notice must be withdrawn before use. Keeping a small job for later does not create an exception. Evidence: notice reference, repair photos, inspection reports, training records, correspondence with HSE, and a log showing the date work restarted only after withdrawal. If the company disagrees with the improvement notice, it should lodge the appeal before the 21-day deadline and keep evidence of the appeal; it should still plan to comply because the appeal may fail.
3. Discuss the Fee for Intervention invoice and how the company should respond, including what 'material breach' means and the relevance of the notices.
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FFI allows HSE to recover its costs where it finds a material breach. A material breach is not just a technical contravention; the inspector must consider that there is or has been a contravention of health and safety law and that the breach is serious enough to require notification or enforcement. The three notices are strong evidence, but the company can ask for the breakdown of the £1,850 and check the hours and rates. It should use HSE's published dispute process: first raise the dispute in writing with the HSE office that issued the invoice, providing evidence of compliance or explaining why there was no material breach; if unresolved, it can be escalated. It should not simply refuse to pay. The response should be factual and should not claim that fixing the defect retrospectively means there was no breach. In parallel, the company should address the underlying causes, because a pattern of breaches can lead to more enforcement and higher costs.