HSE | A Bolton bakery company has been fined £16,667 after an employee fractured their hip falling from a large plastic pallet box while working at height.
The incident occurred on 15 April 2024 at Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery Limited’s site in Lostock, Bolton. The employee had been standing on a pallet box to dispose of food waste into the top of a skip when they fell.
The HSE’s investigation found that Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery Limited had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for loading skips and had not provided appropriate equipment to ensure safe access. The investigation also found that inadequate supervision and monitoring had allowed unsafe working at height practices to become commonplace.
Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery Limited, of Crescent Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £16,667 and ordered to pay costs of £4,333.66, plus a victim surcharge of £2,000.
HSE Inspector Leanne Ratcliffe said: “Every employer has a duty to conduct a risk assessment. Employers should identify work-at-height activities and ensure that safe access is available and used. They should also ensure systems are in place for supervision and monitoring so that unsafe practices are identified and prevented.”
This prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Arfaq Nabi and paralegal officer Hannah Snelling.
HSE | A green waste recycling company based in West Sussex has been fined after an employee broke his leg when he fell from a compost screening machine.
Simon Pateman was working for Woodhorn Group Limited at its green waste recycling site in Tangmere, Chichester, on 16 February 2024 when he climbed onto a Komtech compost screening machine to clear a blockage from the fan housing.
The machine was suspended at height within a large barn and lacked sufficient measures to prevent falls. As Mr Pateman climbed onto the machine he slipped, trapping his left leg between the machine and its frame.
The momentum and lack of guardrails around the fan housing caused Mr Pateman to fall backwards onto the gantry, striking his head on a handrail while his leg remained trapped. He sustained a broken leg which required surgery to insert a metal plate and screws.
Investigating, the HSE found that Woodhorn Group Limited had failed to assess the risks associated with cleaning the machine, including the risk of falls from height from the unguarded edges around the fan housing.
The company’s standard operating procedure also failed to provide employees with instructions on how to safely clean and unblock the fan housing. The investigation further found the company had failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machine, with the interlocked gate not preventing access to employees during the cleaning process for the ‘stars’ – rotating discs used to break down larger clumps of compost
Woodhorn Group Limited, of Woodhorn Business Centre, Woodhorn Lane, Oving, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 2BX, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £6,500 in costs.
HSE Inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said: “This was an entirely preventable incident that has had a significant impact on Mr Pateman’s mobility and quality of life.
“The measures implemented by Woodhorn Group after HSE’s intervention, including new guarded working platforms around the fan housing and over the ‘stars’, demonstrate what was reasonably practicable and should have been in place all along.”
This HSE prosecution was brought by enforcement lawyer Gemma Zakrzewski and paralegal officer Hannah Snelling.
HSE | Two companies have been fined after an employee was killed and a colleague left with life-altering injuries when a cherrypicker collided with an overhead powerline.
Willand O&M Ltd and New Wave Marine Ltd were sentenced following an incident on 1 June 2020 at the Willand Biogas site, Hide Market Road, Cullompton, in Devon.
Carl Parsons, 34, was electrocuted and colleague Luke Madavan, AGE, was left with life-changing injuries
New Wave Marine had been contracted by Willand O&M to lift the lid of a biodigester and stir a crust blockage that had accumulated inside the tank. During this work, a cherry picker operated by New Wave Marine struck an overhead powerline. The electrical current passed through the metal basket, fatally electrocuting Carl Parsons and causing a serious electric shock to Luke Madavan.
The HSE’s investigation found that Willand O&M had been advised by their principal contractor and Western Power Distribution to relocate the overhead powerline. Doing so would have eliminated the risk of contact during both the build and foreseeable future maintenance. Willand O&M failed to act on this advice and put no adequate control measures in place, such as height restrictors on cherry pickers or restricted work areas. Supervision, monitoring and site induction were also found to be poor.
New Wave Marine’s risk assessment was found to be neither suitable nor sufficient. The company also lacked formal training provision and adequate supervision for the work being carried out.
Willand O&M Ltd of Cleave Farm, Station Road, Willand, Cullompton, Devon, pleaded guilty to an offence under Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 by virtue of Regulation 14, having failed to ensure that persons carrying out work at the site were not working on or near a live conductor without reasonable and suitable precautions in place to prevent injury. The company was fined £51,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £28,467.
New Wave Marine Ltd pleaded guilty to offences under Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £30,000 with prosecution costs of £8,000.
Described by his family as funny, loving, kind and a fantastic father, Carl Parsons was a loving husband, son, brother and uncle, well-loved by everyone who knew him. He left behind a wife and three children.
HSE Inspector Nicole Buchanan said: “Working underneath overhead powerlines is inherently unsafe and these risks should be eliminated wherever possible. There is a risk that workers operating equipment could either make direct contact with the electrical source or be exposed to electricity arcing over several metres and travelling through the basket. The electricity network will provide guidance and assist in moving lines or burying them underground to prevent incidents. Companies should always seek competent health and safety advice and ensure their staff are adequately trained.
“The death of Mr Carl Parsons and the injuries to Mr Madavan were entirely avoidable and I hope that this case will serve as a lesson to others who try to avoid costs by working near overhead powerlines. I express my deepest sympathy to those who witnessed the incident, to Carl’s family, his wife, and especially to his three children, and to Mr Madavan; and I thank them for their cooperation throughout the investigation.”
The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Alan Hughes, HSE advocate Sam Jones, and paralegal Helen Jacobs.
Parliament | MPs have launched a new inquiry on the environmental impacts of data centres in the UK.
Amongst the issues the Environmental Audit Committee’s new inquiry will examine will be how much energy and water data centres are likely to use, and how this could impact the UK Government’s net zero goals.
Data centres are regarded by ministers as being central to UK economic growth and were designated critical national infrastructure (CNI) in September 2024, offering them more legal protections. However, their electricity consumption is expected to quadruple by 2030, according to the National Energy System Operator, raising concerns about their sustainability.
In their new inquiry, MPs will explore how growing AI use might accelerate the need for data centres and whether planning authorities will take account of their impact on the environment. They will also consider how new technologies could minimise their environmental impact and what lessons the UK could learn from other countries.
Workplace wellbeing has never had more attention, investment or visibility. Over the last decade, organisations have rolled out mental health first aiders, wellbeing apps, training programmes, webinars, awareness days and policy updates – often with the best of intentions.
And yet, despite all this effort, the workforce is not getting healthier.
According to recent UK data:
More people are too sick to work than ever before, with around 2.8 million people economically inactive due to long-term illness – nearly 800,000 more than before the pandemic.
To understand the gap between investment and impact, Teresa Dier from Barbour EHS sat down with Heather Beach, wellbeing specialist, founder of the Healthy Work Company, and a respected voice on psychological safety and workplace mental health.
Her message was clear: It’s not that organisations don’t care. It’s that they have been focusing on the wrong things – and ignoring the bigger system around wellbeing.
“You cannot ask people to be resilient in a system that’s breaking them.”
The workforce is more overwhelmed than ever – and the reasons go far beyond work
Heather explained that the last 10 years have brought huge societal shifts that are impacting everyone, not just “vulnerable groups”.
1. We are always on and never fully resting
Work used to stop at the office door.
“You couldn’t take your microfiche or your filing cabinet home,” Heather said. “At 5pm, work ended. Holidays were holidays. Weekends were weekends. Now, because of our phones, there’s no separation at all.”
This erosion of boundaries is driving chronic overwhelm and burnout, especially for people who are “addicted to activity” and rarely allow themselves true recovery time.
2. Modern life is overloaded and uncertain
Political instability, economic pressure, climate anxiety, global conflict and the aftermath of COVID have created a constant backdrop of tension.
“There’s an underlying lack of hope,” Heather noted. “People just don’t feel good, and this impacts everyone, including those who would never classify themselves as having a mental health condition.”
3. Social media is amplifying anxiety
Heather referenced Jonathan Haidt’s ’The Anxious Generation’, which explains how smartphones and social platforms have reshaped behaviour, increased comparison and fuelled polarisation.
News is no longer the daily 10pm bulletin; it’s a stream of highly curated, often emotionally charged content created to provoke reaction.
“It’s clickbait designed to shock, divide and keep us engaged,” she said. “We haven’t realised how toxic that environment is.”
4. Workplaces have unintentionally created conditions that accelerate burnout
Back-to-back hybrid meetings, blurred home–working boundaries, reduced in-person support for early-career staff and unmanageable workloads have become normal.
“We’ve sleepwalked into environments where people simply can’t switch off. We’re not designing how we work – we’re letting the environment design us.”
Why wellbeing initiatives haven’t made the dent organisations hoped for
“You can’t yoga your way out of a toxic workload.”
With all this happening externally and impacting the workplace, organisations understandably invested in wellbeing. But Heather explained that the approach many took failed to address the root causes.
1. Wellbeing efforts weren’t rooted in evidence
Companies copied what others were doing. Meditation apps, Mental Health First Aid and yoga sessions infiltrated many workplaces. But organisations were doing this without asking two crucial questions:
What problem are we actually trying to solve?
Is this intervention proven to help?
“Lots of these interventions were bought into because everyone was doing it. For instance, people bought meditation apps because another organisation bought them,” she said. “But the people who generally use these apps are the ones who like meditation anyway.”
2. Too much focus on mental illness, not enough on everyday resilience
The early wave of workplace wellbeing focused heavily on destigmatising mental illness and rolling out mental health first aid.
“That work started the conversation, but it doesn’t build resilience or skills for the everyday stress most people experience.”
3. Managers haven’t been set up to succeed
Managers are often promoted because they were strong technical performers, not because they have the training or bandwidth to lead people well.
“They’re drowning in tasks and haven’t been trained in some basic management competencies – like how to have difficult conversations,” Heather said. “And when you’re overwhelmed yourself, it’s almost impossible to support your team properly.”
4. Organisations tackled symptoms instead of systems
Many employers skipped over the difficult questions – workload, culture, policies, work design – and jumped straight to courses or awareness weeks.
“But wellbeing doesn’t improve unless the system improves. You can’t yoga your way out of a toxic workload.”
So what should workplaces do instead?
“These are the things with the biggest impact, and they are entirely within the organisation’s control.”
Most organisations focus their efforts on supporting people when they are unwell and promoting good health and wellbeing. This is helpful, but it doesn’t really support your organisational responsibilities, which are to create the conditions for people to thrive at work.
1. Prevention of poor wellbeing – fix the foundations: Policies, workload and work design
Wellbeing must start with understanding the specific stress risks in your organisation, then designing those out or mitigating them. That includes:
realistic and manageable workloads
reducing back-to-back meetings and protecting recovery time between them
thoughtful hybrid, flexible or home-working arrangements
consistent return-to-work and sickness policies
“These are the things with the biggest impact,” Heather said. “And they are entirely within the organisation’s control – unlike whether I chose to drink enough water, or go to the gym or not!”
2. Invest in managers – properly
“Wellbeing has to start with leadership. If leaders don’t model good behaviour, it undermines everything.”
Managers need both training and time to lead well. That means:
self awareness and self-regulation techniques
coaching training
confidence to challenge unreasonable workloads for themselves
licence to set boundaries and role-model healthy behaviours
support to have difficult conversations
recognition that managing people is part of their job, not something squeezed in around tasks
Without good leadership and management, Heather warned, “anything else you do on wellbeing falls apart.”
3. Lead from the top visibly
“Wellbeing has to start with leadership,” Heather stressed. “If leaders don’t model good behaviour, it undermines everything.”
Leaders should demonstrate:
self-awareness
openness to difficult conversations
transparency around priorities and workloads
behaviours they expect from others
boundaries that support recovery
When leadership shifts culture, everything else follows.
Promoting good wellbeing: Where resilience training and wellbeing education fit in
Once the system is in a healthier place, organisations can layer individual-level support:
resilience training
emotional literacy
self-management skills
clarity around recovery and rest
training to understand how stress works
But these interventions only “stick” when the organisational environment supports them.
“You can’t ask people to be resilient in a system that’s breaking them,” Heather said. “Fix the system first.”
And when it comes to supporting people when they are unwell – employee assistance programmes, occupational health, mental health first aid are all invaluable support for people to stay in work and return to work when they are better.
The takeaway: wellbeing isn’t failing because people don’t care. It’s failing because the system is broken.
Heather’s message is not that organisations have done everything wrong – in fact, it’s far from it. It’s that workplaces now have an opportunity to shift from sticking plasters to systemic change.
At a time when:
long-term sickness is at record levels
burnout is widespread
stress and anxiety dominate the HSE’s ill-health statistics
subjective wellbeing is declining across the population
…workplaces can have a genuinely transformative impact; but only if they focus on the right levers.
Start with leadership.
Fix the system.
Support your managers.
Then give people the tools and skills to look after themselves.
That’s where wellbeing will finally begin to work.
With thanks to Heather Beach for her insights, and Teresa Dier for facilitating the conversation.
• See how Barbour EHS can support your organisation with its mental health and wellbeing responsibilities
Last week, Barbour EHS hosted a webinar exploring psychological safety and why under-reporting of health & safety incidents continues to challenge organisations, even those with mature safety systems.
The webinar brought together Elizabeth Hyde, Director at Hesper GRC, and Sophie Parkin, Senior Associate in the Environment, Health and Safety team at Eversheds Sutherland, for a discussion that combined legal, psychological and practical insight.
The session was based on Elizabeth’s first-of-its-kind report, From Silence to Safety: Psychological Safety’s Role in Preventing Workplace Incidents, and it drew a significant audience from across sectors. Many participants shared their own experiences of speaking up, or hesitating to do so, in their workplaces.
Below, we recap the background, what the data means, and the practical steps for improving psychological safety and incident reporting.
Understanding psychological safety
Elizabeth explained that psychological safety is “the belief that you can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes without fear of negative consequence.” Originally developed through research by Professor Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School, the concept focuses on interpersonal risk rather than physical or organisational risk.
In practice, this means ensuring employees feel confident to raise issues, challenge unsafe practices, or admit errors without fear of blame or embarrassment. In psychologically safe environments, near misses and minor incidents are reported early, allowing organisations to act before problems escalate.
Elizabeth highlighted that while compliance systems and procedures remain essential, they do not guarantee that people will use them. “Psychological safety,” she said, “is the final safety net that encourages people to speak up when something isn’t right.”
The role of leader behavioural integrity
The webinar also explored the concept of leader behavioural integrity, described by Elizabeth as “leaders who walk the talk when it comes to safety.” It refers to the consistency between what leaders say and what they do, and their ability to follow through on safety promises.
When employees perceive that their leaders genuinely prioritise safety – allocating time, resources, and attention accordingly – they are far more likely to report concerns. Research cited during the session demonstrated a strong correlation between leader integrity and employees’ willingness to speak up.
Lessons from research
“Where leaders were perceived to ‘walk the talk’ on safety, reporting rose sharply from 71% to 90%.
Elizabeth’s own study, conducted with two FTSE 250 companies, examined levels of psychological safety and leader behavioural integrity among 273 frontline employees across logistics, distribution and manufacturing. Despite both companies having robust health and safety functions, around 35% of incidents went unreported.
The data showed that workers who felt psychologically safe with their supervisors reported up to 85% of incidents, compared with 74% where that relationship was weaker. Where leaders were perceived to “walk the talk” on safety, reporting rose sharply from 71% to 90%.
This reinforces the importance of line-manager behaviour in shaping a culture of openness. As Sophie noted, “Low reporting doesn’t always mean you’re safe; it might mean people don’t feel able to speak up.”
Building a culture of openness
Elizabeth and Sophie shared practical steps for improving psychological safety and incident reporting.
Surveys and focus groups can help identify baseline levels of psychological safety and reveal barriers to speaking up.
Workshops and team charters encourage teams to define what enables or discourages open communication.
Regular check-ins, retrospectives and 360-degree feedback signal that input is valued and that leaders are listening.
Simplified reporting tools, such as QR codes or mobile apps, can make it easier for employees to log near misses and safety observations anonymously.
Crucially, when someone does raise a concern, managers must respond constructively. Elizabeth emphasised that how a leader reacts to a first report often determines whether that employee – or their peers – will speak up again.
“Targets focused on reducing incident numbers can make teams reluctant to log near misses for fear of ‘spoiling’ good statistics.”
Balancing metrics with mindset
A number of attendees raised concerns about performance indicators that may unintentionally discourage reporting. Targets focused on reducing incident numbers can make teams reluctant to log near misses for fear of “spoiling” good statistics.
Elizabeth and Sophie advised reviewing KPIs to ensure they support learning and transparency rather than silence.
Sophie also highlighted emerging international developments, including new laws in Brazil mandating the assessment of psychosocial hazards. While the UK has not yet followed suit, she predicted growing attention on this area alongside ISO 45003.
Continuing the conversation
The strong audience engagement and volume of shared experiences during the webinar underline how widely the topic resonates across the profession.
As Elizabeth concluded, creating a workplace where people feel safe to speak up is not a one-off exercise: “It’s a journey that takes consistent effort, integrity, and genuine curiosity about what your people have to say.”
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Elizabeth and Sophie for their time and expertise on this webinar – it made for a fascinating conversation.
For those who missed the live session, the full recording and Elizabeth’s report, ‘From Silence to Safety: Psychological Safety’s Role in Preventing Workplace Incidents’, are available here.
Rebecca May | 7th October 2025
In the demanding and ever-changing world of Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) compliance, balancing day-to-day operations with the rigorous requirements of ISO certification is no mean feat.
Recently, Teresa Dier from Barbour EHS sat down with Matt Egeland, Senior EHS Manager at New Balance, to discuss the company’s journey and commitment to its ISO certifications, implementing best practices internationally, and the invaluable lessons learned.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, has the following purpose: “Independent since 1906, we empower people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world.”
New Balance employs 10,000 associates around the globe, and in 2024 reported worldwide sales of $7.8 billion. New Balance owns five athletic footwear factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance MADE U.S. footwear contains a domestic value of 70% or more and makes up a limited portion of New Balance’s U.S. sales.
New Balance holds four key ISO certifications for different areas of the business in the UK:
• ISO 9001:2015 – Quality management systems
• ISO 45001:2018 – Occupational health and safety management systems
• ISO 14001:2015 – Environmental management systems
• ISO 50001:2018 – Energy management systems
Matt shared how the journey for New Balance began with a gap analysis in 2015, and while they already had strong processes in place, they recognised areas for improvement.
“The goal was to elevate our existing practices and maintain a culture where safety is everyone’s number one priority.”
“We made a three-year plan to get everything ready and align our management systems with ISO standards,” Matt explained. “This involved a lot of training, implementing procedures, and upgrading from an Excel-based system to a web-based platform. The goal was to elevate our existing practices and maintain a culture where safety is everyone’s number one priority.”
Matt had previously taken a business through ISO standards, so he knew what to expect and that it would be achievable for New Balance.
He explained that the motivation to align with ISO standards was driven not just by compliance, but also by a commitment to continuous improvement. This drive stemmed from both operational needs and leadership vision.
The challenges of implementation
Achieving ISO certification while managing day-to-day EHS responsibilities presented its challenges. Matt emphasised that an integrated management system was key to their success. By streamlining processes, New Balance could pursue ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 certifications simultaneously.
“Our integrated system allowed us to have one cohesive framework,” he said.
“For example, monitoring and measurement requirements are similar across standards, whether it’s tracking accidents, near misses, safety observations or environmental impacts. This approach made it easier to address multiple standards at once.”
“This approach made it easier to address multiple standards at once.”
They also needed to carefully consider which ISO standards would be most practical for the different types of sites they operate. For example, New Balance’s UK retail operations were incorporated into the ISO 50001 energy standard as they could realistically influence practical ways to improve energy use, such as efficient processes and store opening times.
In contrast, incorporating health and safety compliance under ISO 45001 presented unique challenges due to the diverse locations, structures, personnel, and operations of the stores.
Innovating and managing international compliance
As New Balance expanded its operations internationally, compliance with diverse legal and legislative frameworks became complex. Matt explained that when they began to expand into Europe, they started looking for a single source of information that would help them quickly understand different international regulatory landscapes and requirements.
“We were looking for a system that could provide not only UK compliance information that we could base our company standards on, but also international compliance information,” Matt shared. “Barbour’s platform gave us access to legislation and legal requirements across Europe, which is very difficult to get. You can search Google for hours, but you don’t get consistent information, and you don’t actually know if what you’ve found is correct. We have now saved ourselves those countless hours of research, and Barbour’s tools allowed us to build a robust legal register tailored to our needs.”
“We have now saved ourselves those countless hours of research.”
During their first day on the Barbour platform, they took advantage of the ability to centralise and simplify complex compliance data. “In just one day, the amount of information we got out of it was amazing, especially from the legal compliance side. We created a document that outlined legal requirements for each country we operate in. It was a game changer. It helped us to become compliant across Europe.”
They also found that they could streamline the task of keeping up to date with changing EHS requirements. What once took days of manual work was reduced to a quick weekly review over what he and his colleague call their “five-minute cup of coffee.”
By having a centralised place to access up-to-date and summarised information, Matt has empowered the area managers in each country to manage their compliance responsibilities for themselves, and they simply check in with him as they go.
“Everything’s there for you – they don’t have to go into every single piece of legislation to see what applies to us. It’s good for helping them to evaluate the legal requirements, and it gives them autonomy and a heads up.”
Lessons learned and looking ahead
When asked about lessons learned, Matt highlighted the importance of proactive planning and robust systems.
“The ISO journey taught us that preparation is everything. We’ve also seen the value of having strong partnerships, like the one we’ve developed with Barbour, to navigate evolving compliance needs. We’ve had some great comments from ISO auditors. They can see that we’re evaluating our compliance continually.”
“We’ve had some great comments from ISO auditors. They can see that we’re evaluating our compliance continually.”
Today, New Balance continues to uphold its ISO certifications while sharing best practices across its global network. “Our commitment to safety and sustainability is stronger than ever. With the right tools and a dedicated team, we’ve not only met the standards, but integrated them into the core of our operations.”
These certifications underscore New Balance’s commitment to excellence, and they also reflect the team’s dedication and strategy in achieving them. As their journey continues, New Balance serves as a powerful example of how determination, innovation and collaboration can drive lasting success in the world of EHS.
Department for Business and Trade | The UK Government has launched a major review of the parental leave and pay system, the first of its kind in Britain.
As part of its “Plan for Change,” this review will look at how to “modernise parental leave to support families and help grow the economy.”
The review is to look at the whole system, from maternity and paternity leave to shared parental leave, to see how it can work better for parents and employers.
Right now, the system is considered by many to be complicated and to not always give families the support they need. It is believed that one-in-three dads don’t take paternity leave because they can’t afford to, and take-up of shared parental leave remains low.
Research also shows that better parental leave can help close the gender pay gap and boost the economy by billions of pounds.
The review will gather views from parents, employers, and experts across the country and will end with a roadmap for possible reforms.
Opus Energy has agreed to pay more than £7 million in refunds, redress, and goodwill payments after overcharging almost 88,000 non-domestic customers between 2003 and 2023.
The supplier identified two billing system faults that temporarily placed customers on wrong tariffs or duplicated billing periods, affecting 87,825 accounts over 20 years. While most overcharges were under £50, one customer overpaid £102,000.
Opus Energy resolved the faults and will pay £5.5 million in refunds and £1.56 million in goodwill payments, and will not recover undercharged amounts. Current customers have been refunded; former customers owing £2.50 or more will be contacted. Unclaimed or smaller refunds will go to the Energy Redress Fund.
