The Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Mr Lee Hampshire, trading as LH Heating and Plumbing, for carrying out gas work and falsely claiming to be registered with the industry registration scheme.

Chester Crown Court heard that, on 11 August 2009, Mr Hampshire made several errors when installing the boiler at the domestic property. One fault was classed as ‘immediately dangerous’, which led to the gas supply being disconnected.

Following installation the pressure gauge on the boiler developed a fault and Mr Hampshire recommended the householder contact the manufacturer directly.

http://goo.gl/leaiE

People who murder disabled or transgender people in hate crime attacks will face life sentences with a starting point of 30 years, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke announced today.

The Ministry of Justice plans to amend the Criminal Justice Act 2003 so that murders motivated by hatred or hostility towards disabled or transgender victims will have the same starting point as for murders aggravated by race, religion and sexual orientation. This will double the current starting point for disability and transgender hate crime murders.

The Act will also be updated so that where any offence is shown to be motivated by hostility towards the victim on the grounds of transgender, as well as race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability, sentences must be made more severe. This will mean all five monitored strands of hate crime will be reflected equally in these provisions.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/moj/newsrelease081211.htm

The medicines regulator is aware that herbal products containing butterbur (Petasites hybridus) are being marketed in the UK and has issued a letter to the UK herbal industry asking them to remove these products from sale.

Butterbur is most commonly used to treat migraine and hayfever and contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) which studies have shown can result in serious liver damage and organ failure.

There are no products containing butterbur licensed for use in the UK under the Traditional Herbal Registration scheme and the sale of butterbur is prohibited or restricted in a number of other European countries. There have been no adverse drug reactions reported in the UK but cases of liver toxicity have been linked with these products in Europe.

http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/Pressreleases/CON143514

The defunct French company Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP) filled its implants with industrial-grade rather than medical-grade silicone, originally manufactured for use in the mattress industry.

Around 300,000 of the PIP implants were sold worldwide, with 40,000 fitted in the UK.

http://goo.gl/OuDpx

An eight-year-old boy suffered serious internal injuries when a stack of roof trusses fell on him while he was playing on an unsecured construction site.
The incident happened on 28 April 2009 on the site at Meadowbrook, Linwood, near Paisley. BDW Trading Ltd was constructing a number of residential properties at the site, some of which had been completed and had people living in them.

“If the company had taken the straightforward precaution of fencing off the construction site, the children would not have been able to get into the area, and this young lad would not have received potentially life-threatening injuries.”

http://www.shponline.co.uk/incourt-content/full/young-child-seriously-hurt-playing-on-construction-site

http://tinyurl.com/72r5rvd

UK plastic surgery is on the increase, despite the recession. Find out which procedures are going up – and which are down: http://tinyurl.com/d34kn2f

• sunset yellow FCF (E110)
• quinoline yellow (E104)
• carmoisine (E122)
• allura red (E129)
• tartrazine (E102)
• ponceau 4R (E124)

The FSA is seeking the participation of the food industry in a voluntary ban. The voluntary ban was agreed by Ministers in November 2008 but is still to be implemented fully.

http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/chemsafe/additivesbranch/colours/hyper/

http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2011/dec/colours

The UK dosing instructions for children’s liquid paracetamol products have been revised. The revised patient information will clarify the most effective dose to be given to a child according to their age.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the government agency responsible for regulating medicines and medical devices in the UK. They continually review the safety of medicines and vaccines in the UK, and inform healthcare professionals and the public of the latest updates through several means, including public assessment reports. This report summarises a UK review of children’s paracetamol products, and the reasons why changes have been made to the dosing instructions.

http://tinyurl.com/76tkwnr