Introduction
Machinery remains one of the leading causes of serious workplace injuries and fatalities across many industries, including manufacturing, construction, warehousing, agriculture, and processing environments. While modern machinery often incorporates sophisticated safety features, incidents continue to occur where dangerous moving parts are accessible, guards have been removed, or safety systems have been bypassed.
Recent enforcement action by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) highlights the devastating consequences that can arise when employers fail to adequately control machinery risks. Effective guarding and safeguarding measures are essential to prevent workers coming into contact with moving parts capable of causing crushing, entanglement, amputation, or fatal injuries.
Incident and Enforcement Overview
In July 2026, a company was fined £1 million following the death of employee at its cement bagging facility in Gloucestershire. According to the HSE investigation, the employee was crushed by a 1.6-tonne concrete weight used within a pallet-lifting mechanism at the plant.
The investigation found that a substantial section of perimeter fencing surrounding the machinery had routinely been removed over an extended period. This allowed unrestricted access to dangerous moving parts that presented a risk of serious injury or death. HSE concluded that the company had failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery and failed to adequately protect employees from foreseeable harm.
The Company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £1 million, with additional costs awarded by the court. HSE stated that suitable safeguarding measures were available and that the incident was entirely preventable.
Why the Risk is So Serious
Machinery hazards can develop wherever employees interact with moving equipment. Common risks include:
- Entanglement in rotating parts
- Crushing between moving and fixed components
- Shearing and trapping points
- Drawing-in hazards between rollers
- Impact from moving machinery
- Ejection of materials or components
- Contact with cutting, stabbing or abrasive surfaces
These incidents frequently result in life-changing injuries, amputations, fractures, permanent disability, or fatalities. In many cases, the injured person is drawn into machinery so rapidly that there is little or no opportunity to react. Machinery-related incidents also commonly occur during cleaning, maintenance, adjustment, fault-finding and unblocking activities where guards have been removed, or isolation procedures have not been followed.
What Does the Law Require?
Employers have a legal duty to ensure machinery is safe for use, suitable for the task, properly maintained, and equipped with effective safeguards. This includes assessing the risks associated with machinery, providing suitable information, instruction and training, and ensuring workers are adequately supervised. Employers must also ensure that dangerous parts of machinery are effectively guarded and that safety devices remain operational and are not bypassed or removed.
Where maintenance, cleaning or fault-finding activities are carried out, suitable isolation and lock-off procedures should also be implemented to prevent unexpected start-up or exposure to moving parts.
Key Control Measures
Controls for machinery safety and guarding should include:
- Eliminating access to dangerous moving parts wherever possible
- Installing robust fixed guards that cannot be removed without tools
- Using interlocked guards that stop machinery when opened
- Implementing lock-off and isolation procedures during maintenance
- Completing routine inspections of guards and safety systems
- Prohibiting unauthorised removal or modification of safeguarding devices
- Providing clear safe systems of work for operation and maintenance
- Training operators, supervisors and maintenance personnel
- Monitoring compliance through supervision and inspections
- Ensuring defects are reported and corrected immediately
Employers should regularly verify that guards remain in position and that interlocks, emergency stops and other protective systems continue to function correctly.
Regulatory Focus and Inspections
Machinery safety remains a significant enforcement priority for HSE because failures in safeguarding continue to cause serious injuries and fatalities. Inspectors routinely review risk assessments, safe systems of work, maintenance procedures, training arrangements and the integrity of guarding systems during inspections.
Where employers allow guards to be removed, safety devices to be bypassed, or dangerous parts to remain accessible, enforcement action can include Improvement Notices, Prohibition Notices, substantial fines and, in the most serious cases, prosecution. The recent prosecution demonstrates that employers cannot allow operational convenience to override basic machinery safety requirements.
Summary
The prosecution of the company serves as a stark reminder that machinery hazards remain capable of causing catastrophic and fatal injuries when effective safeguards are not maintained. A seemingly simple failure to keep perimeter guarding in place exposed workers to a foreseeable and preventable risk that ultimately resulted in the loss of life.
Employers should regularly review machinery risk assessments, inspect guarding arrangements, ensure safety systems remain functional, and reinforce safe working procedures through training and supervision. Effective machinery guarding is not optional, it is a fundamental control measure that protects workers and helps organisations avoid devastating human, legal, financial and reputational consequences
Brainbox+ QnA
Can machinery guards be removed temporarily if they make cleaning, adjustment or maintenance easier
Answer: No, machinery guards should not be removed temporarily to make cleaning, adjustment, or maintenance easier unless specific conditions are met. According to the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), machinery should be designed and used in a way that enables such tasks to be carried out safely, ideally without removing guards or exposing workers to risk. When it is absolutely necessary to remove guards for these purposes, this should only be done under controlled circumstances with adequate measures in place to ensure safety.
For example:
- Energy Isolation (Lock-Out/Tag-Out - LOTO): The machinery must be fully isolated from its energy source, and appropriate lock-out/tag-out procedures must be followed to ensure it cannot be accidentally reactivated during the task.
- Alternative Safety Measures: Where removal of guards is unavoidable, other safety measures, such as interlocked guards or temporary barriers, should be implemented to minimise risk.
- Detailed Procedures: Safe systems of work (SSOW) must be in place, specifying the precautions to be taken during cleaning, adjustment, or maintenance tasks. These procedures should be documented, communicated to staff, and followed rigorously.
- Competence and Training: Only trained and authorised personnel should carry out tasks requiring the removal of guards, and they must fully understand the risks and controls.
Failure to adhere to these requirements can result in serious accidents, such as entrapment or crushing, and may lead to legal consequences for the employer.
