Bath school given £50K fine for exposing pupils to radioactive gas

Kingswood School in Bath has been fined

A private boarding school has been fined £50,000 after exposing five pupils, two employees and their children to high levels of radioactive radon gas.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Kingswood School in Bath had not monitored radon levels for eight years.

Kingswood School Trustees Limited pleaded guilty to the offences.

"We are sorry that we have fallen short in the management of this important element," a school spokesperson said.

The school was ordered to pay £19,222 costs at a hearing at Taunton Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

The radioactive gas radon is a hazard in many homes and workplaces, and breathing it in is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the UK.

The five Kingswood School pupils were exposed to levels of radioactive radon gas almost eight times the legal limit in 2019 while studying at the school, said the HSE.

Two employees were also exposed to radioactive radon gas ¾ of the legal limit and their two children, who were living with them at the school but were not pupils, were exposed to levels of radon gas almost 14 times the legal limit in the same year.

HSE principal specialist inspector Stewart Robertson, said: "The fine imposed on Kingswood School Trustees Limited should underline to everyone in the education sector that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously."

He added they "will not hesitate to take action" to keep people safe.

An investigation by the HSE found the school knew they had a radon problem as far back as 2007 when they carried out monitoring and installed some remediation to reduce radon levels.

'No system'

Investigators found that from 2010 to 2018 the school carried out no subsequent radon monitoring and had no systems in place to ensure radon control measures were good enough.

Only following HSE intervention in 2018 did the school find out about their previous radon problem and further radon monitoring and remediation was carried out to reduce radon levels.

Kingswood School Trustees Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

A Kingswood School spokesperson added: ""While the overwhelming majority of our school has radon levels that are similar to those across the rest of Bath, because of our location, we have a small area of our school where radon levels can exceed the minimum standards.

"A number of measures were installed in a small number of areas in 2010 to mitigate the risk of higher than average radon levels.

"Regrettably, however, after the installation of these devices, the school did not adequately monitor and record radon levels between 2010 and 2019.

"Over the last four years we have already made many additional changes to ensure that our radon mitigation, monitoring and recording far exceeds recommended standards."