£3.2m fine issued | Gas safety week | Latest news and updates

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Health and Safety Executive

Weekly Digest ebulletin

Issued: 12 September 2024

For regular updates on all health and safety issues visit HSE's website.

Gas Safety Week 2024: Every check counts

The Gas Safety Week (GSW) campaign runs from 9 to 15 September and focuses on ensuring the general public knows how to stay gas safe

The campaign is coordinated by Gas Safe Register and this year’s theme, ‘Checking – Every Check Counts’, highlights the importance of regular gas safety checks.

Resources include a video on the importance of annual checks for gas appliances.

You can also find out more on the GSW website.

Visit HSE's website for guidance and information on domestic gas health and safety.

Landlord sentenced after putting tenant's lives at risk

A landlord was recently given a suspended sentence of 26 weeks after not maintaining gas appliances at a property.

They refused to carry out gas safety checks even after HSE took enforcement action.

You can find more information if you read our press release about a landlord putting tenants’ lives at risk.


National Grid fined £3.2 million after worker injury

A pylon worker sustained burns to 40% of his body after an electric shock of 33,000 volts

HSE's investigation found that:

  • The National Grid failed to ensure the electricity was off in order to do this work safely on the pylon
  • 4 Power Ltd failed to properly plan and assess the risk – they were fined £80,000 for the incident

For more information read about this incident in our press release on the National Grid fined £3.2million after pylon worker suffers serious burns.

Other recent enforcement cases include:

  • Company fined after worker died in excavation

  • Woodworking company sentenced following collision death

Visit our news centre for full details of these prosecutions


Help us inform policy to reduce and manage work-related stress

HSE is funding a new research project to collect information on work-related stress.

The Occupational Stress Consultation and Research (OSCAR) project findings will be used to inform policy decisions and create practical guidance for employers.

We’d like to collate any best practice and understand:

  • how work-related stress is talked about and managed in the real world
  • what barriers people face

HSE is reaching out to employers, clinicians, occupational health/wellbeing leads, advisory agencies, support charities, professional bodies, unions, academics. We invite you to share your recommended practices, guidance resources and trusted literature in the field of work-related stress.

Submissions are anonymous, and personal information is not required. The deadline is 30 September. 


HSE as a market surveillance authority for workplace products

HSE monitors and enforces legal requirements on the safety of most products used in the workplace, including any risks to health

HSE has a duty to notify the Secretary of State about unsafe or non-compliant products and of the measures taken and communicated by an economic operator.   

Products notified to the HSE Product Safety and Market Surveillance Unit that present a serious or high risk to the health and safety of the user, and products that have been recalled, are published on GOV.UK under Product Recalls and Alerts.    

Recent examples of products notified are:   

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