Stone company £20,000 fined after repeatedly failing to protect workers

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out several inspections on Warmsworth Stone Limited, which produces carved stone masonry products using limestone, sandstone, granite and marble, at the company’s site at Knabs Hill Farm in Thurnscoe, starting in May 2023.

Following these inspections, the company was served seven improvement notices, which covered several failures including exposure to stone dust, control of legionella bacteria and inadequate welfare facilities.

When HSE inspectors returned in September 2023, five of the improvement notices had still not been complied with – despite the company being given an extension to do so following another visit in August.

The company had shown reckless disregard of several health and safety issues including the assessment and control of respirable dust, and the company’s standard of health and safety management was far below what is required by health and safety law, leading to HSE’s proactive prosecution for failure to control the exposure of workers to RCS.

Stone workers were at risk of exposure to airborne particles of stone dust containing RCS when processing stone, by cutting, chiselling and polishing. Over time, breathing in these silica particles can cause irreversible, life-changing and often fatal respiratory conditions such as silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

After the hearing HSE inspector Charlotte Bligh said: “The company management responsible for health and safety were neither informed nor competent enough to carry out their role under the law.

“Over time, the basic measures to secure the health of all on site had not been taken, there had been no attempt to assess health risks and existing control measures had not been properly maintained.

“The company failed to take the initiative in health and safety matters and seek guidance, instruction and competent advice on implementation and communication of those measures necessary to control the risks at the site.

“The provision of suitable protection for worker’s health is a basic requirement that this company failed to meet. HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate action against those that fail to comply with the requirements of enforcement notices.”

Warmsworth Stone Limited of Sheffield Road, Warmsworth, pleaded guilty to breaching section 21 of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to comply with an Improvement Notice, breaching Regulation 7(1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 by failing to adequately control employee exposure to a substance hazardous to health namely RCS and breaching Regulation 9(2)(a) the same Regulations by failing to have local exhaust ventilation subject to a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months.

They were fined £18,000 with costs of £4,064.

Director Simon Jonathan Frith pleaded guilty to being a director of a company that had breached Regulation 7(1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 by failing to adequately control employee exposure to a substance hazardous to health namely RCS and breaching Regulation 9(2)(a) of the same Regulations by failing to have local exhaust ventilation subject to a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, those offences being committed with his consent, connivance or neglect.

He was fined £1,062, costs £3,782.