Claimant v T S Reeves and HM Inspector of Health and Safety — 2021

21CC Group Ltd appealed against notice P20200219-TSR-1 issued by HM Inspector of Health and Safety Thomas Stephen Reeves on 19 February 2020 in relation to the use of ISO containers 1-10 at Binns Mill for removing fireworks from boxes or cartons while other fireworks were present in the storage magazine. The tribunal recorded the notice as alleging breaches of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulation 26(1)(b) and (c) of the Explosives Regulations 2014, and the appeal turned on whether the activity involved a risk of serious personal injury and whether the statutory provisions were being breached.

The tribunal found that the appellant had risk assessments, method statements, training, and housekeeping arrangements in place, and that fireworks were stored in UN transport boxes in a generally orderly condition. It accepted the evidence of the appellant's witnesses and Dr Tom Smith that the picking process was openly disclosed to the inspector, that the appellant did not seek to hide the activity, and that the method used was part of the company's assessed system of work. The tribunal rejected parts of the inspector's evidence as inconsistent, including his account of what had been said during the inspection and what he had recorded contemporaneously.

Applying the objective approach in Chevron, the tribunal concluded that at the time the notice was served there was not a risk of serious personal injury in the method of picking used by the appellant, and that the appellant was not in breach of section 2(1) HSWA 1974 or regulation 26(1)(b) or (c) ER 2014. It also found that the appellant would have taken the steps required by HSE voluntarily, and that a prohibition notice was therefore not necessary. The tribunal therefore cancelled the notice and allowed the appeal.