The recycling company Veolia has been fined £3 million by the Health and Safety Executive after a man died and another was seriously injured while decommissioning a North Sea gas rig.
Stephen Picken, 62, and Mark Kumar were working as demolition operatives for Veolia ES (UK) Limited at an onshore facility in Great Yarmouth decommissioning and dismantling offshore structures.
On 17 October 2019, the two workers were removing an overhanging piece of metal pipework, known as a skirt pile, weighing in excess of 27 tonnes from a jacket (a structure placed in the sea, designed to support oil and gas rig platforms), when it gave way.
The pile struck the mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) containing the men and threw them to the ground about 12 metres below. Stephen Picken died at the scene and Mark Kumar suffered serious life-changing injuries.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified serious failings with the planning and the risk assessment which did not adequately cover the planned works.
Shortcomings in supervision of the incident were also identified as the company did not risk assess the skirt pile being removed as it was considered low risk.
Veolia ES (UK) Limited of Pentonville Road, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
At a sentencing hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on 22 July 2024, the company was fined £3,000,000 and ordered to pay £60,000 in costs.
After the hearing, HSE inspector David King said: “This incident, in an emerging industry, highlights the level of controls required to safely demolish what are large, dangerous structures. Veolia did not meet these standards and tragically one life was lost, and another forever changed.
“The Health and Safety Executive’s mission is to protect people and places. Organisations that endanger their employees by failing to meet the required standards, should be aware that we will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action.”
