In February 2009, Mr Hashim was helping to fix a new advertising sign to the roof of the garage and was asked to climb on the roof to do this. Once the work was finished, he made his way back across the roof to the ladder when the skylight gave way. He fell 4 metres and landed on a concrete floor in the MOT bay below. He did not regain consciousness and died two weeks later in hospital.

The HSE investigation found Mr Hashim had been warned about the fragile roof by the owner of the company and no action was taken to keep him safe by preventing him accessing the area.

Speaking after the hearing, Matt Greenly, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

“It’s almost unbelievable that Mohammed Hashim was asked to climb onto the roof when the owner of Quality Exhaust knew it wasn’t safe.

“It simply isn’t good enough to warn someone about a danger if no action is taken to prevent it. The company should have found another way of installing the sign without putting lives at risk.

“Instead, Mr Hashim has sadly lost his life because not enough thought was given to his safety while he was working for the company.”

Quality Exhaust Supplies and Fitting Service Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 in prosecution costs on 16 February 2012.

The framework was launched in January 2010 and has since identified 23,300 homes for construction on HCA- owned sites.

The framework is currently split into three regions – northern, central and southern – and each region has 17 members and 50 local authorities using it. The proposal is that the HCA will re-tender the framework and stretch it out to 5 regions.

Whilst the exact shape and form of the new DPP is yet to be decided, I understand that one of the new regions will be dedicated to London and jointly procured by the HCA and Greater London Authority.

Once more information becomes available I will post it on our news feed so watch this space.

We are pleased to announce that we are now an APIL accredited practice. As an accredited firm, we will provide you with legal assistance if you have had a personal injury, or contracted an illness or disease caused by someone else’s negligence. We make commit to:

• Act in your best interests at all times
• Always give clear and honest advice with your welfare in mind
• Keep up to date with all the latest legal developments to help deal with our cases successfully
• Ensure that all staff are provided with training opportunities to improve their skills and knowledge, and meet the needs of our clients
• Maintain our consistent high standard of client care throughout the firm

APIL accreditation is overseen by an independent Academic Quality Council, and the scheme has been running since 1999, so it is well-established, with great credentials.

The CIL and social housing relief is not as straight forward as it first would appear, Lucy Worrall, Partner and specialist social housing lawyer has produced a Guide for RPs, to request your copy please email Lucy on lworrall@croftons.co.uk.

The Prime Minister is expected to discuss raising the threshold on whiplash claims, including: the setting up a panel of experts to sign off whiplash injuries, introducing an impact speed limit of 15mph below which a whiplash injury cannot be claimed and imposing a financial threshold to as a deterrent for ‘nuisance’ claims.

Insurers will call for better training, zero alcohol limit for young drivers (who currently pay the highest premiums as they are statistically more likely to crash), and are expected to demand a statutory reduction in the fixed legal fees paid to personal injury lawyers as part of a wider ban on referral fees.

As to the impact on premiums? I think it would be naive to say that a reduction in the number in whiplash compensation claims would actually result in a reduction to premiums. Insurers will just find another reason to keep their premiums high to ensure a profit and in the meantime, the government will take steps to restrict people’s access to justice…again.

Chloe Shivraj, Graduate Member of ILEX

If you or a member of your family have been involved in a road traffic accident and would like a free, no obligation discussion, contact us direct on 0800 2800 094 or complete our contact form and one of our RTA team will get in touch with you.

Reforms are expected that will hope to make feed in tariffs financially sustainable and to increase certainty for investors. It is thought that the government will introduce a mechanism that will gradually reduce – or ‘digress’ – the FiT to match the falling price of PV panels.

Attempts to provide certainty have come after previously over generous returns on FiTs pushed the £860m budget into the red. This is believed to be the cause for the government’s reduction in tariffs last December.

Pippa Read, policy leader – sustainable environments at the National Housing Federation, is worried that the social housing sector may be left out of the solar industry unless ‘existing and future tariff rates take account of the specific financial model of social housing schemes, including the split financial benefit with the free electricity going to the tenant to help reduce fuel poverty.’

More concrete announcements about how the cost of panels will relate to the amount of FiT available are expected to be made in the near future.

One of the main features of the DECC’s report include the announcement that any panels installed on or after the beginning of April 2012 will require at least a rating of D in their Energy Performance Certificate. Initially, this was set at C or above.

It is not known whether the solar PV installation will contribute in itself to raising the EPC level. However, as a FiT application will have to include a valid EPC certificate as supporting evidence, it is unlikely that this will be the case.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the consultation response is the confirmation that multi-installation tariffs (i.e. more than 25 installations operated by the same individual or organisation) will only receive 80% of the standard tariff – this is allegedly to reflect lower costs that bigger installations benefit from. Although  on the face of it this will not be welcome news to RPs the DECC is currently consulting on a proposal to allow social  landlords and community projects to have access to the full FiTs. However to bnenefit the social landlord’s scheme will have to be community orientated rather than commercial.

More information on the DECC’s response to consultation and the second phase of consultations can be found here.

Having been established in April 2010, the portal was designed for low value RTA claims (up to £10,000) and there are concerns that the government has not factored in the reality of the difference in the nature of cases that are greater in value than the portal currently allows for. No comments have been made as to whether the portal will be adapted to reflect this.

In addition, the government has made no comment on the potential increased costs relating to this. They seem to be suggesting that solicitors undertake the same work for a case that is worth £25,000 as they would have for £10,000. This has the potential to put a Claimant, whose claim falls between £10,000 and £25,000 at a disadvantage and potentially be undercompensated as there is a risk that some firms (those of less integrity) that will treat cases in a more commercial manner.

For non personal injury, the limit for small claims will be increased from £5,000 to £10,000 and for county court cases from £15,000 to £100,000.

These changes come as part of government’s response to Ministry of Justice consultation paper Solving Disputes in the County Courts which was originally due in October.

Simon Leighton, Managing Partner

Our injury claims team work with a wide range of accident related cases.  If you or a member of your family have been injured in a road traffic accident, an accident at work or in a public place, see how Croftons can help you and contact Simon direct. Alternatively, you can complete our contact form and one of our injury claims specialists will get in touch with you.

The Act came into effect on 15 November 2011 and introduced some of the radical reforms of the housing sector. Certain provisions came into effect immediately or through the first Commencement Order on 3 December 2011. The Second Commencement order came into effect on 15 January 2012 bringing into effect a number of new measures and powers.

In this article Localism Act 2011 and How It Will Affect Registered Providers I look at how the Act makes changes to social housing regulation and tenure, planning and the introduction to a flexible community infrastructure levy.

Read the full article.

It had originally been scheduled to take effect in October 2012, but speculation had been growing that the timetable was too tight to have everything in place to enable businesses to be ready for the changes.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman has said: “We are committed to reforming the ‘no win no fee’ system so that legal costs for reasonable compensation claims will be more proportionate, and avoidable claims will be deterred from going to court.”

If you want to discuss any of the above further or want to find out how Croftons can help you, contact our injury claims team free on 0800 2800 094 or complete our contact form.