Four July HSE Prosecutions. About £560,000 in Fines. One Pattern.

Four HSE prosecutions that reached court around July 2026. Different sites. Different jobs. Roughly £560,000 in fines between them. The same kind of basics left undone.

Two of these cases have already been covered on SafeCompli in full (Chloe Bidwell and the Putney scaffold tower). They still belong in any honest July list. The other two, South East Refurbishment and SCS Railways, are set out in more detail below.

1. Chloe Bidwell / Varcity Living Limited, £50,000 and a suspended sentence

Chloe Bidwell was 18, a joiner apprentice, working alone on a renovation in Bangor on 20 December 2023. A stack of 28 wooden boards, some weighing up to 30kg, had been stored upright against a wall without securing. Investigators believe she was retrieving a board when the stack collapsed. The injuries were fatal.

At Llandudno Magistrates' Court on 9 July 2026, Varcity Living Limited was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £10,080 in costs after pleading guilty to sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Director David Horrocks pleaded guilty under section 37. He received 26 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for two years, plus £7,886 in costs.

HSE found inadequate site supervision, no suitable lone working policy or procedure, no suitable procedure for storing board materials, and inadequate risk assessment. HSE guidance is clear that boards should be stored horizontally on a level surface and must never be stacked on edge without adequate support, and that lone workers need increased training, supervision and monitoring.

2. Add Prop Limited, Putney High Street tower scaffold, £20,000

On 19 July 2023, operatives working for Add Prop Limited assembled a mobile tower scaffold on Putney High Street under the supervision of sole director Atif Riaz. The tower was assembled incorrectly, with inadequate separation from the public, then covered in sheeting. In windy conditions the sheeting acted as a sail. The tower overturned, striking and trapping two members of the public.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, Add Prop Limited was found guilty of breaching regulation 19(2)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Fine: £20,000 plus £7,000 costs. Atif Riaz was found guilty under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Fine: £1,730 plus £1,730 costs.

HSE found the tower had not been assembled or inspected by adequately trained and competent persons, had not been erected to manufacturer instructions, and that neither the company nor the director had adequately accounted for wind loading before sheeting. The company had previously been served a prohibition notice relating to unsafe tower scaffold work at another site.

3. South East Refurbishment Limited, forklift tipping bucket fall, £90,000

On 28 March 2023 at the EMIR site on Wotton Road, Ashford, Aaron Back (then 38, later reported as 41) was dismantling pipework. A scissor lift had been ordered but was too tall for the area. Work continued from a tipping bucket fitted to a forklift truck. He fell to the concrete floor.

In his victim personal statement he said he was "physically ruined," that his left side does not work properly, and that the accident had taken away his identity, including simple things like taking his children to football.

South East Refurbishment Limited pleaded guilty to section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. At Margate Magistrates' Court on 7 July 2026 the company was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £27,241 in costs.

HSE found no suitable arrangements to manage contractors and ensure site safety, no alternative safe system of work when the scissor lift would not fit, no training on the forklift or scissor lift for Mr Back or the labour-only subcontractor, no procedure limiting plant access to trained operatives, and inadequate supervision. HSE also recorded significant failings on unsafe work at height over a prolonged period, with relevant advice and enforcement on contractor control and work at height dating back to 2013.

Falls from height remain the leading cause of workplace fatalities in Great Britain. HSE reported 31 people killed in falls in 2025/26.

4. SCS Railways (HS2 joint venture), tipper over excavation ramp, £400,000

On 27 July 2021 at Copthall North near Uxbridge, a 20-tonne tipper truck fell about two metres from the edge of an excavation ramp on an HS2 cut-and-cover tunnel site run by SCS Railways (Skanska Construction UK, Costain and Strabag). The driver suffered a broken nose, shoulder injury and cuts to the hand.

On the morning of the incident the earthworks loading position was moved after material could not be used as planned. The revised traffic route left an unprotected edge on the bank. The first tipper using the higher-level bank slipped. The next followed the same path and left the edge.

At Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on 16 June 2026, SCS Railways pleaded guilty to section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Fine: £400,000 plus £8,974 in costs. The outcome was widely reported into early July.

HSE found no edge protection to stop vehicles leaving the ramp, inadequate signage on haulage routes, and unsupported excavation faces adjacent to some vehicle routes. Detailed procedures existed for much of the work, including temporary works for excavations, but changes in vehicle routes were not properly planned and promptly communicated. HSG 144 expects physical barriers such as safety banks at excavation edges; haul roads are temporary works and need managing as such.

The pattern

None of these cases turned on rare chemistry or one-off plant. They turned on:

Young or lone workers without real supervision and check-back
Materials stored in a way HSE has already written down as wrong
Temporary structures erected and modified without competence and wind loading
Work at height improvised when the planned access equipment would not fit
Site traffic and edges left unprotected after the plan changed mid-shift

If you only run one check after reading this, use the last time your method of work, loading point or haul route changed. Ask whether the risk assessment, briefing, competence and physical controls moved on the same day.

Four July HSE Prosecutions. About £560,000 in Fines. One Pattern.

Four July HSE Prosecutions. About £560,000 in Fines. One Pattern.

1. Chloe Bidwell / Varcity Living Limited, £50,000 and a suspended sentence

2. Add Prop Limited, Putney High Street tower scaffold, £20,000

3. South East Refurbishment Limited, forklift tipping bucket fall, £90,000

4. SCS Railways (HS2 joint venture), tipper over excavation ramp, £400,000

The pattern

Further reading