Two firms have been fined after an employee was electrocuted and killed during work at a data centre in Middlesex.

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services [BBES] of Lumina Building, Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow, admitted breaches of Section 2[1] and 3[1] of the Health and Safety Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £280,000 in total [£140,000] with £42,240 costs.

Facilities management company, Norland Managed Services [NMS], of City Bridge House, Southwark Street, London was found guilty after an earlier trial of breaching and 3[1] of the Health and Safety Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 with £106,670 in costs.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how Martin Walton, 27, from Blackhall Colliert, Cleveland was killed at Morgan Stanley's Heathrow Data Centre in Hounslow on 16 October 2010.

He worked as a cable jointer for subcontracted company Integrated Cable Services.

BBES was contracted to carry out infrastructure upgrade works at the facility, while NMS were already contracted to provide mechanical/electrical maintenance and had effective control of the site.

The court heard the function of some new power distribution units being installed was to provide two potential power supply sources to the centre's data storage equipment.

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One source was an existing substation on the site, while the other was a new substation installed as part of the works.

NMS had control over the existing power supply, while the new supply was controlled by BBES.

Connection of the first three units to the existing data centre infrastructure was scheduled to take place between 16 to 18 October 2010.

Last minute modifications to the units required them to be tested with two live supplies to ensure they functioned correctly before being connected to the data centre's existing infrastructure.

The first unit was successfully modified, tested and connected to the existing infrastructure. However, Mr Walton was electrocuted when his forehead made contact with the 415V live terminals of the second unit.

The Health and Safety Executive [HSE] told the court the main cause of the incident was a series of failures caused by a breakdown of BBES's management of health and safety on the project, particularly concerning communication.

While NMS had no role in the construction project, its role was the management of the impact of the construction project on the existing operational infrastructure under its control.

NMS issued a permit-to-work to Mr Walton allowing him to reroute the existing site power supply through the new distribution unit, knowing it had the potential to receive a supply from a source not under its control and without confirming that that other supply was isolated.

HSE Inspector Loraine Charles said: "Although BBES claimed to have been under pressure from a difficult and demanding client, they cannot be excused for having lost sight of the need for the effective control of risks arising from the work being carried out under their control at this data centre.

"Permit to work systems were operated poorly or not at all. Not one person involved in the work at the time of the accident had an accurate overall understanding of the work being carried out and, as a consequence, Martin Walton and others were unknowingly working in the vicinity of exposed live electrical terminals.

"NMS, who were operating an effective permit to work system in relation to the equipment under their own control, made no effort to ensure that the work they permitted did not create risk at the point at which it interacted with equipment under BBES control."

(LM/CD)