Lancashire contractor fined £20,000 after worker falls 10 metres through fragile barn roof

AJ Riley Landscapes and Building Limited has been fined £20,000 after a worker fell about 10 metres through a fragile barn roof while replacing a damaged skylight, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.

The Caton, Lancashire, company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was also ordered to pay £4,955 in costs at Warrington Magistrates' Court on 3 November 2026.

HSE said the worker, Josh Huddleston, 47, suffered fractures to his ribs, vertebrae and pelvis in the fall on 24 February 2025.

HSE inspector Matthew Shepherd said: "Falls from height remain one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities. It is fortunate that Mr Huddleston survived this fall, which could easily have resulted in fatal injuries."

The investigation

HSE's investigation found the company had failed to adequately plan the work and to ensure appropriate control measures were in place to prevent a fall through the fragile roof.

It also found that workers had not received sufficient training to be competent in using the control measures identified in the company's own risk assessment.

Section 2(1) of the 1974 Act places a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees.

The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Gemma Zakrzewski and paralegal officer Henrietta Burrows. HSE said it does not pass sentences, set guidelines or collect fines, and that courts must follow the relevant sentencing guidelines unless satisfied it would be contrary to the interests of justice.

Companies House records the business, under the styling A J RILEY LANDSCAPES AND BUILDING LIMITED, as company number 10703489 with active status. Its registered nature of business is SIC code 43999, other specialised construction activities not elsewhere classified.

The regulator's lesson

Mr Shepherd said: "Suitable precautions are readily available, and this incident could have been prevented through proper planning, risk assessment and the implementation of effective control measures."

HSE's fragile surfaces guidance says falls through fragile surfaces, particularly fibre-cement roofs and rooflights, account for 22% of all fall from height fatal injuries in construction. It lists rooflights among the materials likely to be fragile, particularly those in the roof plane that can be hard to see in certain light conditions.

The regulator's roof work guidance says all roofs should be treated as fragile until a competent person has confirmed they are not, and that fragile rooflights are a particular hazard. HSE says almost one in five deaths in construction work involve roof work.

HSE advises planning and organising work to keep people away from fragile surfaces so far as possible, for example by working from below on a mobile elevating work platform. Where work must take place on or near a fragile surface, it says a combination of stagings, guard rails, fall restraint, fall arrest and safety nets is required, and warning notices must be fixed on the approach.

The guidance adds that effective precautions are needed for all work on or near fragile surfaces, however short the job, and that those carrying out roof work must be trained, competent and instructed in the use of the precautions required.

Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, whose stated purpose is to prevent death and injury caused by a fall from height, work at height must be properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people.

The wider picture

HSE's provisional figures, published in July, show 126 workers were killed in work-related incidents in Great Britain in 2025/26. Construction recorded the highest number of worker deaths of any industry, at 25, and falls from a height were the most common cause of fatal injury, with 31 deaths, around a quarter of the total.

The case follows a similar prosecution in August 2026, when HSE said Len Smith & Son Building Contractors Limited was fined £20,000 with £5,744 costs at North Tyneside Magistrates Court on 6 August after an employee stepped on a polycarbonate roof sheet and fell about eight feet to a concrete floor.

The fall in the AJ Riley case was roughly 10 metres, with the fine and costs together totalling £24,955.