Marks & Spencer has been fined £1m and ordered to pay legal costs of £600,000 for exposing staff and the public to asbestos during the refurbishment of its Reading and Bournemouth stores.  Exposure to even small amounts of asbestos dust can have devastating health consequences and can lead to the development of a terminal cancer called mesothelioma.  Asbestos is responsible for approximately 4000 deaths every year, making it the biggest single cause of work related deaths in the UK.

During the three month trial at Bournemouth Crown Court it emerged that between 2006 and 2007 construction workers at the two M&S stores removed asbestos ceiling tiles.   Judge Christopher Harvey Clark QC said that the company was more interested in profits than planning asbestos removal.  He stated that: “The response from Marks & Spencer was, in effect, to turn a blind eye to what was happening...it was already costing the company too much money.”

The Marks & Spencer shop in Reading was being refurbished when ceiling tiles containing asbestos fell to the floor.  The Health and Safety Executive described the standards of work as poor and decided to inspect the Bournemouth store where they found pieces of asbestos outside of a plastic enclosure and a roof void that had not been properly covered up.

Marks & Spencer were convicted of two charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 of failing to ensure the health and safety of its staff and others.  They were fined £500,000 for each offence.  The Court heard that Marks & Spencer guidance on asbestos removal was not fully followed by the contractors during the refurbishments.

Contractor Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd, of Hertfordshire, was found guilty of contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act at the Bournemouth store.  Manchester based company PA Realisations Ltd was also found guilty of contravening Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 at the Reading store.  At an earlier hearing, Styles & Wood Limited, of Altrincham, Cheshire pleaded guilty to contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act, also relating to the Reading store.

After the sentencing, Richard Boland of the Health and Safety Executive said: “This outcome should act as a wake up call that any refurbishment programmes involving asbestos containing materials must be properly resourced, both in terms of time and money – no matter what.”

The timing of this fine embarrassingly coincided with M&S picking up an award at the Oracle World Retail Awards in Berlin for most Responsible Retailer of the year.

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About John Pickering and Partners LLP

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors

We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work.  We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. We have an ethical approach and donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.  We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.

Find out more about our donations to good causes. We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law. Find out more about us or our reported cases. We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  Find out more about what others have said about us.

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the landmark Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life." Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs. It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

More than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015. 

The first Action Mesothelioma Day was launched on 27th February 2006.  Its objectives were to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people who may be exposed to asbestos.

If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.

Contact us to find out more about your entitlement to claim compensation if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer or pleural thickening.

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