Mr Timothy Bidmead was fined £40,000 and £5,000 costs for health and safety failings involving work at height

26 October 2021

Mr. Timothy Bidmead was fined a total of £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs by the Royal Court on 24th September 2021 after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Law, 1989.  

The prosecution followed an incident on 23rd November 2020, during repairs to the roof area of a residential property at 23 Duhamel Place, St Helier. Mr. Bidmead, who was actively involved in the planning and execution of the work at the property, was the Managing Director and sole shareholder of T. Bidmead Building Contractors Limited (the Company) at the time of the incident. 

Having sold the company following the incident, it was Mr. Bidmead and not the company that was penalised for the failings. 

Workers were observed gaining access/egress to the work area on the roof using an unsafe mobile scaffold tower which put persons at risk of falling a substantial distance likely to cause serious injury or death. Once on the roof, the work area was not adequately guarded, with the ‘ad-hoc’ edge protection installed failing to protect the work area and was of inadequate construction to stop persons falling from the roof. Workers were exposed to a serious risk of falling approximately eight metres to the ground. The work area is shown in the photographs below:

Fig 1: Inadequate edge protection to roof work area 

Fig 2: Employee working outside of any protection 

On arrival on site immediate enforcement action was taken by the Health and Safety Inspectorate prohibiting access/ egress to the roof via the mobile scaffold tower and works on the roof until the appropriate steps had been taken to ensure the safety of the workers. An independent scaffolding company was subsequently contracted to erect a scaffold to the façade which provided safe access to the roof and incorporated suitable edge protection to the work area on the roof, enabling work to continue. 

At sentencing, Deputy Bailiff R.J. MacRae stated that Mr. Bidmead’s culpability was high, he had failed to put in place recognised safety measures and the failure to do so was a serious failure. As Managing Director at the time of the offence Mr. Bidmead was solely responsible for the safety of his employees and was personally involved in the provision of the inadequate scaffolding. The risk of harm was substantial as any person falling from the roof or the scaffold tower may have suffered serious injury or death.

Of particular relevance are Regulation 27: Work at Height and Regulation  23: Safe place of work, access and egress.