Window cleaning company fined for safety breaches

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) successfully prosecuted Brian Stubbs (director) and Brian Stubbs and Company Limited at Stafford Magistrates’ Court after a window cleaner was observed standing on guttering on the outside of a balcony parapet wall on the third floor of St Joseph’s Nursing Home, Lichfield Road, Stafford, on 21 August 2014.

An HSE investigation found that there was no suitable edge protection or other appropriate safety measures in place.

Mr Stubbs, of Westhead Avenue, Stafford, was fined a total of £660 and ordered to pay £867 costs after pleading guilty to breaching 3(1)(a) of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Brian Stubbs and Company Limited was fined £660 and ordered to pay £846 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

After the case HSE Inspector Katherine Blunt commented: "Work being carried out in this manner was entirely avoidable. This could very easily have been a fatality.

"They didn’t have to do the work this way. As advertised on the company’s website, a ‘reach and wash’ system could have been used, which allows the cleaning of windows up to 65 feet."

For more information on what employers need to do to protect employees when they work at height please visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-at-height/