Claimant v East Ayrshire Council — 2025

The appellants were respectively the operator and owner of a day spa with a domestic hot tub/spa pool. East Ayrshire Council environmental health officers inspected the premises in November 2024 and issued prohibition notices requiring the hot tub not to be operated or used unless the stated matters were remedied. The notices identified risks of exposure to legionella and other infectious agents and referred to duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and COSHH Regulations.

The tribunal found that, at the time the notices were served, the appellants' operation of the hot tub involved a risk of serious personal injury. It relied on findings including lack of demonstrated understanding of the risks, no effective scheme of control, hand dosing without knowledge of water capacity, insufficiently sensitive testing strips, bromine levels below the range in HSG282 records, absence of twice-daily checks where required, no regular shock dosing, no regular microbiological sampling, and the operator's lack of full knowledge of cleaning and emptying the tub.

The tribunal accepted some of the second appellant's submissions about surrounding matters, including that the inspection may have been perceived as an ambush, that discussions about whether a risk assessment had to be written were confusing, and that an inline continuous disinfectant feeder was not a mandatory requirement. However, it found the later negative water sample had limited evidential value because it was taken when the tub was not in use, and concluded unanimously that both prohibition notices should be affirmed.