HSE Prosecutes Police Officer and His Force for Injuring Civilian Staff
In a recent hearing, both Thames Valley Police as well as Officer PC Micklethwaite pleaded guilty to charges of breaching sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1994. The prosecution was with regard to an incident that took place on 30th May 2007 at the department’s training centre at
Officer PC Micklethwaite while demonstrating to a team of newly recruited civilian police staff how firearms work, loaded ammunition into a revolver from an unmarked sweet tin, which had been brought from the department’s armoury. Thinking that the ammunition was non-live, he loaded the gun and fired repeatedly to show to the trainees how the cylinder rotates when a revolver is used.
Unfortunately, for civilian worker Keith Tilbury, the ammunition was live and one of the bullets injured him instantly, requiring immediate hospitalisation and admission to the ICU ward. Tilbury is still recovering from his injuries.
The HSE, while prosecuting the police force and the officer, categorically stated that special risk assessments had been conducted to ensure safety while using firearms, and that these had been well documented. Similarly, there were proper guidelines in place for separating live and non-live firearms. Moreover, the guidelines were very clear about who could use and store such firearms. Yet the police force had failed to follow these simple principles, resulting in the present mishap.
Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to employees with regard to health and safety issues – click CIPD Courses – for training to help Management manage safety and learn how to promote a positive health and safety attitude in the workplace.
TVP pleaded guilty to the breach of Sec 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1994 and it was asked to pay a fine of £40,000 and costs of £25,000. Similarly, officer Micklethwaite also pleaded guilty to the breach of Sec 7 of the Act and he was ordered to pay a fine of £8000 and costs of £5000.
