Penhallow Hotel owners fined £80k for safety breaches – BBC News

“The owners of a Cornish hotel destroyed by fire have been fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £62,000 costs for failing to meet fire safety standards.”

Full story

BBC News, 4th May 2011

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Baker v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd and others – WLR Daily

Baker v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd and others [2011] UKSC 17;  [2011] WLR (D)  132

“A workplace could be unsafe for the purposes of section 29(1) of the Factories Act 1961 if operations constantly and regularly carried on in it made it so. Section 29(1) applied to the risk of noise-induced hearing loss arising from such activities in relation to long-term employees. Safety had to be judged according to the general knowledge and standards of the time.”

WLR Daily, 13th April 2011

Source: www.iclr.co.uk

Please note that once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.

Supreme Court overturns CoA’s Pretty Polly hearing loss ruling – The Lawyer

“The Supreme Court has refused to endorse a Court of Appeal (CoA) ruling on noise induced hearing loss, blocking the progression of what lawyers believe could have been thousands of hearing loss claims.”

Full story

The Lawyer, 13th April 2011

Source: www.thelawyer.com

Heroic police and firefighters protected from health and safety laws, says CPS – Daily Telegraph

“Police officers and firefighters will not be prosecuted for breaking health and safety laws by putting their lives on the line, the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday.”

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 7th April 2011

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Network Rail pleads guilty over Potters Bar crash – BBC News

“Network Rail has admitted breaching safety regulations over the Potters Bar train crash which claimed seven lives.”

Full story

BBC News, 30th March 2011

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Chris Huhne faces legal challenge over nuclear link to cancer in children – The Guardian

“The government has ordered an expansion of the UK’s nuclear programme without properly factoring in evidence that nuclear power stations cause an increase in cancer cases in children living nearby, according to a legal challenge in the high court.”

Full story

The Guardian, 25th March 2011

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

‘Hyper-injunction’ stops you talking to MP – Daily Telegraph

“Voters are being barred from speaking to their MPs under a new generation of gagging orders known as hyper-injunctions, the House of Commons has been told.”

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 21st March 2011

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk