Coleraine cleaning company pleads guilty to health and safety breach

NII Clean Limited pleaded guilty to a single health and safety breach relating to a failure to complete a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for work being carried out by them, at a property in Portglenone in August 2023.

They were fined a total of £4000.

The court heard how Mr Sean Duncan, an employee of NII Clean Limited, suffered multiple injuries and was airlifted to hospital after he fell approximately three metres from a flat roof at a property.

Mr Duncan had been instructed to carry out roof cleaning activities on the property. During preparations for the work, Mr. Duncan accessed a flat tin roof and subsequently fell three metres into a neighbouring yard.

The investigation, conducted by Health and Safety Executive NI (HSENI), found that NII Clean Limited had failed to conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the work being carried out at the property at the time of the incident.

Speaking after the hearing, Kiara Blackburn, an Inspector within HSENI’s Major Investigation Team said: “Employers have a duty to ensure all work activities are adequately risk assessed and that risk assessments are suitable and sufficient and are applicable to the job in question.”

Further information on risk assessments can be found on HSENI’s website:

Risk assessment - https://www.hseni.gov.uk/articles/risk-assessment