24 May 2019
Jubilee Scaffolding Company Limited was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 towards costs by the Royal Court on 3 May 2019 after pleading guilty to a breach of Regulation 18 of the Safeguarding of Workers (Electricity at Work) Regulations 1983.
The prosecution arose as a result of a report from Jersey Electricity (JEC) of one of their overhead power lines being found secured to a scaffold erected at a domestic property in St Lawrence. Investigation by the Health and Safety Inspectorate identified that Jubilee had erected the scaffold approximately a month prior to the dangerous situation being discovered.
The risk assessment carried out by the company was inadequate and failed to identify the presence of the electric cable which supplied the house at 400v from a pole in the street. The company employees concerned had equally been ignorant of the risks and had constructed the scaffold with the cable running across the access hatch to the working platform. Because of the cable’s proximity to the access, an employee then restrained the live cable to the scaffold with a metal clip to move it out of the way. On completion, the scaffold was ‘handed over’ to roofing contractors by a supervisor as fit to work on, without any danger still being identified.
Figure 1 The live electrical cable across the access to the working platform and secured to the scaffold
In the period following the erection of the scaffold, until the discovery of the situation by JEC, the cable insulation abraded in the area where it was restrained by the metal clip causing visible damage to the insulation. The situation presented a highly dangerous risk of electric shock, burns and electrocution to anybody in close proximity to the scaffold. It was extremely fortunate that nobody was hurt in this case.
There are approximately 80 kilometres of overhead power lines across the Island. If any work is planned to take place within 10 metres of overhead electrical cables, such as crane operations, scaffolding or movement of large equipment, Jersey Electricity should be contacted. They can then arrange for the lines to be shrouded with protective material which will give protection from inadvertent contact. There is no charge for this service and had it been done in this case the scaffold would have been safe to work from.
Further Information
Working safely near to utilities (Yellow Booklet)
Guidance on the Electricity Regulations
gov.je