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1. I am the Hygiene and Safety Officer of McDonald's Restaurants Limited.
2. I have read the allegation in the Further and Letter Particulars of the Further and Better Particulars of justification and Fair Comment pursuant to a Request dated 3rd November 1992 in which it is alleged on page 5 at point (g) that as an example of the Plaintiffs' failure to maintain a safe place of work and/or safe system of working and/or causing or permitting employees to work in poor or regrading conditions that an employee, Mark Hopkins, was killed by electrocution whilst at work.
3. It is correct that Mark Hopkins was killed, tragically, by electrocution but it is untrue that this was due to the failure of McDonald's as alleged.
4. In my capacity as Hygiene and Safety Officer, I was responsible for investigating this incident, the background to which is as follows.
5. On 12th October 1992 Mark Hopkins was the Floor manager on duty at the Arndale restaurant in Manchester. At the end of the evening shift a crew member was in the back room running the filtering machine through its wash cycle. Pumping water through the machine to clean it is standard practise in many stores. At the Arndale store the filtering machine is used each night after business is closed to filter out carbon particles from the shortening used in the fry vat.
6. The machine was plugged into the socket near the ice machine and was pumping water.
7. The crew member undertaking this task was holding the nozzle of the machine and the filter paper holder in the back sink when he received an electric shock which he felt go across his stomach. He immediately dropped the equipment and went to tell the Floor Manager running the shift, Mark Hopkins. Mark Hopkins attempted to reconstruct the conditions in which the crew member had received the shock, ie. he asked the crew member how he had been holding the equipment and grasped the nozzle of the machine and the back sink. Mark was thrown against the fry table before falling to the floor subsequent to which he died.
8. The cause of the accident was faulty wiring in the plug which had been carried out by a crew member who had been unaware that non-qualified employees should not carry out regular repairs.
9. This ignorance was despite the fact that the Company rains staff at orientation, in the crew handbook, in the company's Health and Safety policy and on the back of the Direct Drawer observation check list which is used to train and monitor the awareness of employees in the use of particular operations including the filtering process. As well as this, numerous memos had been sent to all Store managers, including a memo dated 7th September 1992, a month prior to the incident, emphasising that no electrical repair work should be undertaken by staff which includes for example changing a 13 amp plug or replacing a fluorescent tube.
10. Following the incident, the matter was investigated by the Environmental Health and Consumer Protection Department If the City of Manchester Council who concluded that the death was caused by the "criminally negligent" wiring of a 13 amp plug which was undertaken by an employee but with no reference to McDonald's management. He expressed to me satisfaction with the systems in place to ensure McDonald's Compliance with legislation and whilst he made recommendations by way of improvement notices and a deferred prohibition notice no prosecution was brought against the company or indeed the individual responsible for the faulty ring of the plug.
1. I am the Hygiene and Safety Officer of McDonald's Restaurants Limited.
2. I am 34 years of age and I graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 1981 having obtained a degree in Biochemistry.
3. I joined McDonald's Restaurants in 1982 as a Trainee Manager and worked for two years in the restaurants rising to the position of Restaurant Manager.
4. In 1984 the Company set up a Quality Assurance department in which I worked for 5 years at all times holding the position of Quality Assurance Supervisor.
5. I worked in the Quality Assurance Department until 1989 when I went on maternity leave. In 1990 I returned from maternity leave and rejoined the Company taking up the position of Hygiene and Safety Officer.
6. In 1990 I gained a National Executive Board Occupational Health and Safety (NEBOSH) Diploma in Safety Management. This Diploma is of post-graduate standard.
7. I am a member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology.
8. As the company's Hygiene and Safety Officer I am responsible for developing the Company's policy on food Hygiene in the restaurants and the health and safety of staff ad customers. These policies are reviewed and developed in conjunction with the operational staff who are responsible for Insuring that the Company's practices and procedures are enforced in the restaurants.
9. In addition to the regular checks on hygiene and safety standards conducted by the restaurant Supervisors, the tree Regional Health and Safety Advisors who work in my apartment undertake random safety audits in the restaurants to ensure that the proper procedures and standards are being adopted.
10. Recently the Company has introduced a Corporate safety Audit as devised by the Royal Society for the prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) which is the Quality Safety Audit. It is based on the latest guidance from the Health and Safety Executive entitled "Successful Health and Safety management". The Company's aim is to be able to apply for ROSPA's top award based on the results of that corporate audit by July 1994.
11. I have read the expert report of Chris Purslow and I confirm that the standards and procedures described by him are accurate and that the table attached to this report was prepared by me. I confirm the accuracy of that table.
12. Hygiene health and safety have always been taken very seriously by McDonald's as the welfare of staff and customers is of paramount importance. The various systems and procedures described by Mr Purslow in his statement have always been in force at the appropriate dates and the purpose of appointing me to the position of Hygiene and Safety Officer n 1990 was to develop safety management procedures appropriate to the growth of the Company. These procedures had been in place in the restaurants but as the Company grew it became more important to ensure that a formal safety management structure was developed and enhanced.
| date signed: |
June 6, 1993
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| Supplementary statement date signed: |
14 January, 1994
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| status: |
Appeared in court
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exhibits: Not applicable/ available
transcripts of court appearances:
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