Balfour Beatty's specialist Utility Solutions business has been fined £500,000 for exposing its workers to Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS).

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered workers at the company were exposed to HAVS over a nine-year period between 2002 and 2011.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that employees at company sites were regularly exposed to hand-arm vibration while operating hand-held power tools such as hydraulic breakers and floor saws.

HSE's investigation found that the company failed in its legal duty to ensure the risks to workers who used these tools was kept to as low a level as reasonably practicable. Overall, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions failed to assess the risk to workers’ health, failed to put in place and monitor suitable risk control measures and failed to put in place a suitable system of health surveillance.


The company also failed to report to the enforcing authorities a significant number of cases of employees diagnosed with HAVS as was legally required.

Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions Ltd of Thorncliffe Park, Chapeltown, Sheffield pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company also pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 5 (1) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. In addition, the company was ordered to pay £195,000 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Christine Mellor said: "This case was about failing to protect workers. Exposure to hand-arm vibration is a well-known risk which Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions Ltd. failed to adequately control.

"The company failed to heed warnings. Early health surveillance detected ill health but still this was not acted upon to prevent on-going exposure.

"This is a particularly serious case because of the extent and duration of failures. The breaches were repeated over several years and this resulted in persistent poor compliance and significant harm to workers."

(LM/MH)