A recycling company has been fined £3m 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) Ltd at an onshore facility in Great Yarmouth.
On 17 October 2019, the two workers were removing a skirt pile – an overhanging piece of metal pipework – weighing more than 27 tonnes from a jacket – a structure placed in the sea designed to support oil and gas rig platforms – when it gave away.
The pile struck the mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) containing the men, throwing them to the ground about 12m below.
Stephen Picken died at the scene and Mark Kumar suffered serious life-changing injuries.
No safe system of work in place
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. It also identified shortcomings in the supervision of the incident.
Veolia did not risk-assess the skirt pile being removed as it was considered low risk. As a result, there was no cutting plan or safe system of work for the skirt pile.
Veolia ES (UK) Ltd, of Pentonville Road, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £3m and ordered to pay £60,000 in costs at a sentencing hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on 22 July 2024.
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.”
