02/05/2025
The UK Government is considering some significant amendments to building regulations which will impact BWF Members and the wider woodworking and joinery manufacturing industry. A consultation of ...
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has reported that a Northampton woodworking manufacturer was sentenced last month after a worker had two fingers amputated following an industrial accident. The incident occurred on 31st October 2014 when the worker caught his dominant right hand on a revolving cutting block.
Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard that the cutting block provided was not suitable for use in manual mode on a single-end toning machine. The machine was not guarded correctly and there was access to dangerous moving parts. Also the company had failed to adequately train the worker or supervise him sufficiently to use the woodworking machine. Neither he nor his supervisor recognised that the working method was unsafe.
Limited cutter projection tooling is a requirement for hand-fed woodworking machines as it significantly reduces the severity of injury if a machine operator’s fingers contact the rotating tool. This type of tooling has been a requirement on hand-fed machines since 2003. Following the accident, the company was able to improve the guarding of the machine by making a guard from wood using the skills within the company.
The Northampton luxury kitchen manufacturer, which is not a BWF member, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 4(1), 11(1), 9(1) and 9(2) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) and was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £1,896.
After the hearing, Inspector Neil Ward said ‘This case involved an entirely avoidable accident. The worker’s fingers were so badly injured that surgeons had to amputate. The worker was unable to work for three months and more than a year after the accident, he is still unable to do any heavy work. The defendant company fell far short of a safe and reasonable standard in its duties under health and safety legislation’.
The safety of your workers is of prime importance. The BWF's comprehensive 91 page Guide to Health and Safety in the woodworking industry includes guidance on young persons in the workplace and with HSE recovering costs at a rate of £1000/day for inspections, during which a breach is found, BWF has prepared a number of resources to help you mitigate Health and Safety risk such as:
– A 12 point ‘Health and Safety: the essentials’ checklist to help prevent you getting caught out and advice on what HSE field inspectors are looking for in our Health and Safety publications.
– Our selection of woodworking machinery safety cards.
– Health and Safety training – including machine refresher training, Health & Safety management qualifications and more.
– As a member you can also ring our Health and Safety helpline on 0844 209 2610.
– Our Health & Safety Hero Campaign resources include short videos you can show to your staff, presentations you can adapt to your own company's health & safety processes and safety essential checklists you can give to each member of staff. There will be a new topic launched each month.
