In a statement, HSE announced this month that it will now have ‘primacy’ for the investigation which will examine whether any health and safety laws were breached.
Five workers aged between 40 and 56 were killed when a wall collapsed on them at the site in the Nechells area of Birmingham in July 2016. (See letsrecycle.com story).
The site was run by Shredmet Limited and owned by West Midlands-based business Hawkeswood Metal Recycling.
In August 2016, West Midlands Police stated that the investigation, which is to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths to “establish whether there is any criminal liability,” was likely to be “long-term”.
HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety and its principal inspector leading the investigation, Geoffrey Brown, said the Nechells’ probe “remains a criminal investigation”.
He said: “We will be considering whether there were any breaches of health and safety law relevant to the circumstances of this tragic event.
“HSE’s thoughts remain with the families of those who lost loved ones that day. We will of course keep the families updated as our investigation continues.”
Inquest
Five inquests into the deaths of the men, four of whom were from Gambia and one from Senegal, were opened and adjourned three weeks after the event in the Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court.
Detective Harrison, the senior investigating officer for the case, told the court that “documentation has been seized from the company offices [and] statements have been obtained from the majority of persons present at the site at the time.”
The coroner went on to say that the inquests would be adjourned without fixing a future date “pending the outcome of the investigation”.
Register for free to comment