Wm Morrison’s Supermarkets fined £3,500,000 having been convicted of health and safety failings

Wm Morrison’s Supermarkets were fined £3,500,000 on the 17/3/23 having been convicted of health and safety failings at a trial prosecuted by Richard Atkins KC of St Philips Chambers, leading Mark Jackson of No 8 Chambers.

The trial, which lasted 4 weeks earlier this year, concerned the death of a 27-year-old man who suffered from epilepsy. He had fallen over a staircase banister probably as a result of suffering an epileptic episode in October 2014.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets had been warned of the dangers the particular staircase posed the victim by a fellow employee and the victim’s mother, yet had ignored the warnings and continued requiring the victim to use the staircase to access his locker, the staff canteen and the staff lavatories.

You can find out more about the case here: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/17/morrisons-fined-after-death-of-matthew-gunn-employee-with-epilepsy