A chance incident at a retail outlet operated by the national retailer, WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc, led to the discovery of a state of neglect of basic health and safety legal requirements. Following the incident at the company's Castle Bromwich store on 15th October 2004, in which an employee fell from a delivery truck, sustaining a head injury, Solihull Borough Council health and safety officials visited the site which had been converted from a Safeway to a Morrisons several weeks before.
Investigators found deficiencies in the way risks were being controlled, partly resulting from a large increase of stock being delivered to the site and storage space being at a premium.
By 1st October, a scissor lift that had been used to unload vehicles safely had become completely blocked by stock and rendered unusable, and an alternative system adopted whereby staff would enter the delivery vehicle and use a pallet truck to manoeuvre loads so that their fork lift could remove the stock. Unfortunately this required to be done in almost complete darkness after 10.00pm when the automatic perimeter lighting went off.

£18,000 fine
No assessments into potential health and safety issues had been carried out on the site and site management had raised issues with the company regarding increasing levels of stock and the yard area becoming dangerous because of wet conditions and no lighting.
The accident victim was employed as a shop worker, and worked without the benefit of training in warehouse duties. Additionally, he had no personal protective equipment issued to him for the task.
Furthermore, despite a risk assessment being carried out after the accident which stated that additional lighting must be provided to the yard area, it was not until further interventions by the Council’s investigating officers that lighting was finally upgraded 3 months later.
The investigating officers concluded that conditions on the site around the time of the accident were completely unacceptable and that there were fundamental deficiencies in the planning and implementation of the changeover of the store that should have been identified through the process of risk assessment.
At Solihull Magistrates' Court WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc pleaded guilty to 9 particulars under s.2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for which it was fined £18,000, with £8,156 in costs.