Stone company fined after workshop floor covered in hazardous dust
- Hello_YCDI
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
A company that manufactures popular stone kitchen worktops has been fined £60,000 after it repeatedly failed to protect workers from exposure to hazardous dust.
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Inova Stone Ltd nine times over a six year period, and found little or no improvement across several areas of concern.
HSE inspectors were left stunned after visiting the company’s premises in Slough in May 2021 when employees told them that ‘no-one is in charge of health and safety’. That visit had come about after concerns had been raised about unsafe working practices. Inspectors soon saw the complacency for themselves, after identifying several breaches of health and safety law, including a failure to control exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS).
The workshop floor was caked in dust, suggesting an absence of effective controls.
HSE recently updated its guidance for those working on stone worktops – including a helpful guide of do’s and don’ts here: HSE Guidance for those installing stone worktops (PDF) .
As a result of the inspection, the company was served with four improvement notices, with the resulting HSE investigation revealing similar action had also been taken four years earlier, in 2017.
Inova Stone Ltd of Willow Road, Colnbrook, Slough, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, as well as three charges for failure to comply with an improvement notice. The company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £7,363 costs at Staines Magistrates Court on 20 May 2025.
コメント