A Welsh local authority has been heavily fined by a Magistrates Court after it allowed a contractor to perform work when it had not properly checked his competence to do so.

Newport City Council have got into hot water with the law after it engaged a contractor in 2010 to carry out work on a loft conversion at a property near Newport, Wales. This work was carried out in November 2010. As part of the conversion work the contractor had to move a boiler in the house and replace a flue. However, the work was not done competently and this left the boiler and flue in an “immediately dangerous” condition, with potentially lethal fumes seeping into the house.

The householder subsequently complained that her boiler was not working and that it was leaking. She therefore called an independent engineer to inspect the boiler. This engineer reviewed the situation and informed her that she should not use the boiler or the flue. He also recommended that she contact Gas Safe so that they could commence an investigation. The Gas Safe Investigation found that the work on the boiler had not been carried out competently and the matter was referred on to the Health and Safety Executive (“HSE”). The HSE investigation resulted in a recommendation that Newport City Council should be prosecuted for failing to instruct a competent contractor to carry out the work.

The case came before the Cwmbran Magistrates Court on 24 June 2013. The court heard how the HSE investigation had instructed the householder to contract the company that carried out the work without checking the company’s competence to do so or monitoring their work whilst it was carried out. Further, the Council apparently did not follow its own rigid policies and procedures relating to choosing contractors – it did not ask the householder to choose from a list of approved contractors and did not pass the matter through the department that normally undertook such work.

The Council pleaded guilty to a breach of s.3(1) of the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974. It was fined £20,000 as a result and ordered to pay the prosecution’s costs of £11,000. The criminal defence solicitors for the Council did not comment after the judgment.

The HSE inspector responsible for the case, Mr Dean Baker, commented after the judgment that: “Newport City Council failed in their obligation to the family to ensure that the contractors they were paying to do the work were able to do it competently and to monitor the work being carried out on their behalf. The shoddy and careless work by the contractors could have cost a family with young children their lives. Anyone carrying out work on or near a flue should get the advice of a Gas Safe Registered engineer before starting work.”

Chris Hadrill, an employment solicitor at Redmans, commented on the case that: “It’s not only the people doing the work who have a duty to ensure that health and safety laws have complied with – the person contracting for the work to be done also has a duty to ensure that a competent person is chosen to undertake the work and that the work is also monitored.”

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