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thunderchild  
#1 Posted : 17 May 2023 14:26:33(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
thunderchild

Afternoon Safety Peeps!

Can anyone point me in the direction of prosecutions for failure to follow / implement LOTO? I fear this discussion will come up next week and I'd like a bit of financial / custodial anecdotes to aide my discussions!

A Kurdziel  
#2 Posted : 17 May 2023 15:15:44(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

By LOTO do you mean Lockout/Tagout Procedures

peter gotch  
#3 Posted : 17 May 2023 16:08:49(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Hi Thunderchild

I doubt that you will unearth a single LOTO prosecution in the UK let alone one with some fine or custodial sentence that will send fear around the Board.

LOTO - Lock Off, Tag Off (or variants) is an American import. UK duties focus on a safe system of work, so far as reasonably practicable.

Sometimes LOTO might be appropriate, often not.

Lots of equipment won't even be designed to facilitate the full LOTO.

As example, buy a domestic washing machine (or many other "white goods"). It goes wrong, so you call out the engineer.

The safe system of work is that the engineer switches off the power at the socket, then pulls out the plug so that the washing machine is isolated. 

Then they remove the back of the washing machine before exposing anything that is dangerous if there is a power supply, mostly the electrics. 

Unless you have a very special socket you CANNOT lock off the power at that socket and even if you could the engineer could, if minded, simply plug back in to another socket.

If doing the job without any shortcuts, the engineer then makes the repair and puts everything back together before plugging the washing machine back in. 

They might decide that they need to power up to check something before replacing the back of the machine and the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 allow this to happen if necessary and with additional controls - which would include keeping you and those in your household well away from the machine.

So, for your Board meeting if you want some prosecutions you need to search by other words.

If, as example you are concerned about dangerous machines then may be you look at the HSE prosecutions database and search for BREACHES (not the default CASES) where the allegation is of a breach of whichever Regulation in PUWER covers maintenance.

You could look wider and try for breaches of Section 2 of HSWA but you will have huge difficulty in separating out Section 2 prosecutions into those which might align to the relevant parts of Section 2(2) i.e. 2(2)(a) - plant and systems and 2(2)(c) - training etc.

Virtually no point in homing in on cases taken for breach of Section 2(2) as almost all cases are taken via Section 2(1) - matter of HSE policy that Section 2(2) merely provides illustrations of the general duty under Section 2(1).

If you were to scour OSHA and other US safety sites you might find more LOTO cases, but any fines are unlikely to be much of a deterrent for your Board.

James10  
#4 Posted : 17 May 2023 18:24:05(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
James10

Hi Thunderchild

There are a few HSE prosecution press releases that refer to safe systems of work, safe isolation and safe access to equipment. See links below

press.hse.gov.uk/2023/03/22/company-fined-80k-after-father-of-four-loses-lower-arm/

press.hse.gov.uk/2022/09/20/firm-fined-115000-after-workers-hand-was-cut-off-in-machine/

press.hse.gov.uk/2021/10/19/lincolnshire-food-manufacturer-fined-after-employee-crushed-in-cooking-machine/

We occasionally share some examples with our maintenance department to remind them of the importance of following full LOTO procedures when working on equipment.  

If that is what you are looking for I hope it helps a bit. 

thanks 1 user thanked James10 for this useful post.
thunderchild on 18/05/2023(UTC)
thunderchild  
#5 Posted : 18 May 2023 14:40:37(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
thunderchild

Originally Posted by: James10 Go to Quoted Post

Hi Thunderchild

There are a few HSE prosecution press releases that refer to safe systems of work, safe isolation and safe access to equipment. See links below

press.hse.gov.uk/2023/03/22/company-fined-80k-after-father-of-four-loses-lower-arm/

press.hse.gov.uk/2022/09/20/firm-fined-115000-after-workers-hand-was-cut-off-in-machine/

press.hse.gov.uk/2021/10/19/lincolnshire-food-manufacturer-fined-after-employee-crushed-in-cooking-machine/

We occasionally share some examples with our maintenance department to remind them of the importance of following full LOTO procedures when working on equipment.  

If that is what you are looking for I hope it helps a bit. 

Thanks that is exactly what I am after.

Yes we do have switched that can be fully locked off to prevent re-energising.

peter gotch  
#6 Posted : 18 May 2023 16:06:26(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Hi Thunderchild

To play Devil's Advocate, do you think that any of these three cases will get through to Directors? - they might well think that "this sort of thing wouldn't happen HERE".

Each of those three cases might have been defended and possibly successfully.

Arguably each could be used to focus on the role of those at the sharp end e.g where the HSE narrative comments: 

“We’d had problems with the belts lots of times, and it was no different to jobs I’d done every week. The machines have guards around them, it’s a barrier to stop you going in. We’d opened the door and gone in. I was stood between the two arms of the machine. I’d done that many times.

“I asked the operator to start the machine as you had to get the machine running as quickly as you could. The chain grabbed my sleeve. The guy on the other side of the conveyor pulled me out from under the machine."

The problem with these HSE press releases usually after a guilty plea is that we never hear the "other side of the story" - just whatever dramatic licence HSE chooses to apply.

In this particular case, someone who from the narrative given by HSE can be presumed to be a very experienced engineer appears to have deliberately taken what they should have recognised to be a risk.

None of these three cases is really anything to do with LOTO per se (indeed they don't even touch on the TO in LOTO), but rather a culture where workers find ways to get around the precautions and management doesn't "see" (whether being deliberately blind or not).

Which leads to another problem - the regulator's resources are even thinner than in the past such that each prosecution has been limited to the easy option, rather than delving deep into WHY management has failed to effectively challenge dangerous decision making by those at risk.

....and I suggest that if you want to make real progress, your Board needs to be thinking about the underlying causes where the Directors can exert most influence rather than focusing on issues that the front line supervisors should be dealing with. It is for the Directors to give those front line supervisors the confidence to make the right decisions. 

So, here perhaps the Board may become engaged with LOTO, but might do nothing about the occupational health risks which possibly pose a greater threat.

thanks 1 user thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
A Kurdziel on 19/05/2023(UTC)
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