14th January 2026

Engineering Firm Fined For H&S Breaches

What’s Happened?

Not the best start to the New Year for one engineering firm in Bedfordshire…The company has recently been fined £27,200 after a routine HSE Inspection identified poor management of safety, which put employees at risk of ill-health, including dermatitis, asthma and other respiratory conditions.

HSE inspectors identified a number of concerns which were brought to the company’s attention, specifically on the use of metalworking fluids in CNC machines.

The issues were significant, and this led to HSE inspectors serving formal Improvement Notices, which required the company to prepare a suitable risk assessment for the activities, and to have appropriate testing and monitoring arrangements in place.

Improvement Notices Ignored

As you can probably guess, an Improvement Notice means there needs to be an improvement made. It is issued by the HSE when work has taken place or is taking place that doesn’t comply with health and safety laws. The Improvement Notice will identify the specific breach in the law that needs to be addressed and provide a definitive timetable for when actions need to be taken to address the breach. Failure to comply is an offence.

When HSE conducted a follow-up inspection to check on progress at the factory, it found that despite the requirements of the Improvement Notices, the company had failed to make suitable progress, namely, there was no risk assessment in place, and documentation that had been prepared was unsuitable as it still failed to identify hazards and potential health effects, not did it consider measures to reduce the risk of inhalation of metalworking fluid mist or fluid quality control arrangements.

There is specific HSE guidance freely available; click here for managing metalworking fluids. This guidance states that employers must maintain fluid quality and control bacterial contamination of fluids, minimise skin exposure to fluids, prevent or control airborne mists and, where there is exposure to fluid or mist, carry out appropriate health surveillance.

In Court

In light of the lack of progress, the company was therefore deemed to have not complied with the Improvement Notices, and a prosecution was commenced. The company attended Luton Magistrates’ Court on 8th January 2026, where they pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations and to two charges of breaching Section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company was fined £27,200 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

After the hearing, the HSE Inspector involved in the case said, “Poor management of the use of metalworking fluids still leads to workers developing lung diseases and dermatitis. Employers must consider how these fluids are used and take steps to reduce and control exposure.”

If you have any queries on this blog or feel your organisation would benefit from a health and safety audit of your metalworking fluid arrangements, then don’t hesitate to reach out to our health and safety advice line on 0300 303 5228 or email us at info@lighthouseriskservices.co.uk.