United Kingdom

Pret a Manger has been fined £800,000 after a member of staff was left trapped in sub-zero temperatures for 2.5 hours, fearing for her life.

The coffee and sandwich chain pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to the Health and Safety at Work. Act 1974 at Westminster Magistrates Court on the 29th August, following an investigation by Westminster City Council’s Health and Safety team.

On the 29th July 2021, a member of staff at the Victoria Coach Station shop became entrapped in a walk-in commercial freezer typically set to run at around -18 degrees dressed only in jeans and a t-shirt. She tried to keep warm by moving around (although space in the freezer is limited), but after some time she began to feel unwell from the cold, finding that her breathing was becoming restricted and that she was losing sensation in her thighs and feet.

To try and keep warm, she tore up a cardboard box containing chocolate croissants to use as cover from the ventilator blowing out cold air but found that her hands were too cold and painful to break the box apart. The worker was eventually found by a colleague, in a state of distress and believing she was going to die. She was taken to hospital where she was treated for suspected hypothermia.

The investigation established that there was no suitable risk assessment for employees working in temperature-controlled environments. The reporting system used by Pret revealed that there had been a number of call-outs relating to defective or frozen push buttons in the previous 19 months, including a previous occasion at the same remote kitchen in January 2020 when a worker had become entrapped in the walk-in freezer, having been unable to open the door from the inside. On that occasion, the internal door release mechanism was not working.

Pret a Manger pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay the Council its full costs, in addition to a victim surcharge, within 28 days. When passing her sentence, the District Judge decided on a starting point of £1.6 million, which was reduced to £800,000 following credit for an early guilty plea and mitigation advanced on behalf of the company.

House of Lord petition... why is this important?

Michael Gove wants to let developers increase pollution and harm rivers. Right now, planning authorities can only approve developments they’re sure will not damage protected habitats - but if the Housing Secretary gets his way, that rule will be scrapped.

The papers are saying that the Government will try and amend the levelling up and regeneration bill. The Bill is currently in the House of Lords, and the Government needs to get support for it soon if they want Michael Gove’s plans to succeed. With our dirty rivers all over the news, will the House of Lords want to support more poo-llution in our water?

We need to show the House of Lords that we will not stand for the Government’s plans to put our natural habitats at risk instead of saving them.

Sgt Graham Saville, 46, was attempting to help a distressed man on the tracks before he was struck.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/394213

The analysis also reveals that patients in more deprived parts of the country are more likely to have their cancer diagnosed late, with 47% of cancer patients in the most deprived communities being diagnosed late, compared with 39% in the least deprived.

The US has taken a public stand over China’s crimes against humanity. In Beijing this week, the UK foreign secretary should do the same and shame his hosts.

Statistics published today by the U.K. Department for Transport (DfT) show that in 2022 85% of the car drivers in Great Britain broke the law by driving faster than the speed limit in 20mph zones. On roads with a 30mph maximum, 50% of car drivers broke the law, reveals the annual DfT report on speed limit compliance.

The measurements are based on speed data from a sample of Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) around the country. These exclude locations where external factors might restrict driver behavior, such as at junctions, on hills, beside sharp bends or where speed cameras are visible, says the DfT report.

Bit ironic since most of them were probably stolen in the first place.

An annual energy bill for a typical household will fall to £1,923 in October under regulator Ofgem's new price cap.

I honestly think it's appalling that they're continuing to let these energy providers make obscene profits from us.

Earlier this year, Virgin Media announced it would make a change to its terms and conditions – from April 2024 it will introduce inflation-based price rises that mean the amount its customers pay for their broadband will increase every year.

But we’re concerned Virgin Media’s terms are an attempt by the firm to both have its cake and eat it. As well as applying aggressive inflation-linked annual mid-contract price rises, it’s also maintaining the right to hike bills further at any time.

That discretionary price rise clause has been part of Virgin Media contracts for some time, but the new terms also allow for annual price rises based on the retail price index (RPI) rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9% while removing the right for affected customers to cancel without paying substantial exit fees.

We believe these clauses amount to unfair contract terms and could be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act by creating a ‘significant imbalance’ between the rights Virgin Media has granted itself and those of its customers.