Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery has been fined more than £16k after an employee fractured their hip whilst working at a production site in Bolton.
The incident, which occurred on 15 April 2024, involved the employee falling from a large plastic pallet box as they were disposing of food waste into a skip.
A subsequent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that Greenhalgh’s had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for loading skips and had not provided appropriate equipment to ensure safe access. It also found that inadequate supervision and monitoring had allowed unsafe working at height practices to become commonplace.
The HSE noted that working at height remains one of the leading causes of workplace injury and death, with inspector Leanne Ratcliffe reminding that every employer has a duty to conduct a risk assessment.
“Employers should identify work-at-height activities and ensure that safe access is available and used,” she said. “They should also ensure systems are in place for supervision and monitoring so that unsafe practices are identified and prevented.”
Greenhalgh’s pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and received a fine of £16,667 during a hearing at Tameside Magistrates’ Court on 13 March 2026. It was also ordered to pay costs of £4,333.66 plus a victim surcharge of £2,000.
The bakery business operates two factories, located close to each other in the Lostock district of Bolton, which supply its retail estate of 48 shops across the Northwest.
British Baker has reached out for Greenhalgh’s comment.
Bolton was also the location for three separate accidents in 2022 occurring at sites operated by David Wood Baking, which led to the company being fined a total of £573,344 last year. Another fine handed out in 2025 was one for £12k incurred by Truffles Bakery in Sussex, relating to an accident where an employee lost part of a finger. Flour supplier ADM Milling, meanwhile, was slapped with a £300k fine last year due to maintenance worker severing a finger in machinery at its Corby site.
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