Claimant v R J Dixon One of HM Inspectors of Health and Safety — 2021

This was an appeal by G D Precision Engineering Ltd against an Improvement Notice served on 21 November 2018 by HM Inspector of Health and Safety Ms Dixon in relation to the guarding of three first-floor KRV milling machines. The Notice alleged breaches of s.2 HSWA 1974 and regulation 11 of PUWER 1998 and required the Appellant to work through the hierarchy of measures to improve guarding so far as practicable. The tribunal recorded that no inspector had seen the machines in operation, but the HSE had inspected the premises on earlier occasions, received photographs and correspondence, and had seen two videos shown on Mr Dickens' telephone during the 27 September 2018 visit.

The tribunal rejected Mr Dickens' case that the HSE had changed its requirements since 10 May 2017. It found that, despite some inconsistencies in wording across the Notices of Contravention and correspondence, the theme throughout was the same: application of the hierarchy in regulation 11. It also found that Ms Dixon had enough information to serve the Notice and that Mr Dickens had made it clear he would permit no further access, so there was no further investigation that she ought reasonably to have undertaken.

On the central issue of practicability, the tribunal accepted that Mr Dickens was an experienced milling-machine operator and that some circumstances might make fixed guarding impracticable. It nevertheless found that the splash screen and other arrangements shown in the videos did not satisfy regulation 11, and that a fixed guard of the type illustrated by Mr Corbridge, or an interlocked cutter guard, would improve safety and was practicable for the jobs shown. The tribunal concluded that the Appellant had not taken effective measures to prevent access, so far as practicable, to the rotating cutters and that it had jumped too quickly from the first stage of the hierarchy to the second without properly considering what could be done.

The tribunal therefore affirmed the Improvement Notice under s.24 HSWA, but modified it by substituting the compliance date. The original date of 14 December 2018 was replaced with a date 28 days from the date the decision was sent to the parties.