HSE ISSUES MOD WITH CROWN CENSURE OVER SOLDIER'S DEATH

The Health and Safety Executive has issued the Ministry of Defence with a Crown Censure after a soldier died during a training exercise on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Private Jethro Watson-Pickering, of the 1st Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, died on 15 October 2021 while taking part in an exercise called Iron Storm. He was driving a Scimitar-variant armoured vehicle when its gun barrel struck a tree at around 11.50am. The impact caused the turret to rotate rapidly, and the vehicle's rear storage bin struck his head. He died at the scene.

Private Watson-Pickering's role was to drive armoured vehicles and act as the enemy for another Army regiment, and the vehicle was escaping a simulated attack when the collision happened. A Health and Safety Executive investigation found there was no safe system of work for driving the vehicle during the exercise. Risk assessments had failed to identify the danger of the turret rotating without warning, and no measures existed to stop the storage bin striking the driver's head if the barrel was struck. The investigation also found that risk assessments had not been properly reviewed after similar incidents in earlier years, and that instruction and training on the risk of unintended turret rotation were inadequate.

The investigation concluded that the Ministry of Defence had not met its duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act. A file was passed to the Health and Safety Executive's legal services division, which found sufficient evidence to pursue a Crown Censure. A Crown Censure is used against government bodies that cannot be prosecuted under health and safety law. It carries no fine but records that the department breached its duties.