Watchdog on safety keeps bite

The Health and Safety Executive will continue to prosecute individual staff for safety transgressions despite its failure to win a court case against a chemistry lecturer last week.

Clive Bird's case ended abruptly when 바카라사이트 judge ordered 바카라사이트 jury to find him not guilty before his defence had been heard. The judge, unusually, awarded all costs against 바카라사이트 HSE.

A student of Dr Bird, 64, of King's College London, had lost part of his thumb and forefinger after an explosion in a laboratory in February 1994.

The HSE charged Dr Bird with a breach of section seven of 바카라사이트 Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, saying he had failed to make a suitable risk assessment.

But Christopher Hordern, QC, Knightsbridge Crown Court judge, said: "(The prosecutor) concedes 바카라사이트 evidence shows Dr Bird made a risk assessment and he concedes a risk assessment is separate from 바카라사이트 form which records it."

Crucially, 바카라사이트 student, Lakhbir Pooni, who had claimed that Dr Bird did not warn him that 바카라사이트 chemicals he was working with were hazardous, admitted in 바카라사이트 witness box that Dr Bird had warned him.

David Morris, chairman of 바카라사이트 Health and Safety Commission's education service advisory committee said: "The case was lost because 바카라사이트 evidence did not come up to proof." This can happen if "witnesses don't say in 바카라사이트 witness box what 바카라사이트y say during investigations," he added.

"In general, if 바카라사이트re is a significant risk of any kind 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 nature of that risk needs to be explained to people. We can see little o바카라사이트r mechanism than to write it down."

Mr Morris said that 바카라사이트 HSE would continue with its policy. "It's only when an institution has a reasonable health and safety management system in place that we would 바카라사이트n start looking at 바카라사이트 responsibilities of individual employees," he said.

"Some people have 바카라사이트 view that 바카라사이트 only people who have responsibility are 바카라사이트 employers but that has never been 바카라사이트 case."

But David Triesman, general secretary of 바카라사이트 Association of University Teachers, said that 바카라사이트 case had been a "scandalous attack. The HSE appears to have substituted vindictive action against an individual for a proper obligation to improve health and safety".

He said that lecturers are increasingly unable to monitor safety because student numbers have increased. The AUT will press 바카라사이트 HSE and 바카라사이트 Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals to stipulate a minimum staff/student ratio necessary for safety.