A businessman has been ordered to pay £30,000 for having dirty toilets at his workplace, it has been reported. The court heard that a Bristol Council Safety Inspector had checked the toilets at business premises in Strachan and Henshaw and found them to be filthy and dilapidated. The inspector served an Improvement Notice on Alan Dykes, requiring them to be regularly and frequently cleaned, and stating that this should be done by a certain date. When the inspector returned, she found an unacceptable level of dirt, including dried excrement on toilet pans and cubicle doors and walls, a dirty floor, no toilet paper or soap, and a broken cistern.

The inspector made several more visits over the next year, and on only one occasion was the toilet block clean and satisfactorily maintained. The inspector said the toilets were generally in a filthy condition, giving rise to a serious risk of infection to people using them. Mr Dykes pleaded not guilty to two charges of failure to comply with a notice requiring him to keep the site toilets clean and represented himself. He said he originally had the toilets cleaned once a week but later increased that to two or three times a week, and in June 2009 he arranged for them to be cleaned every day. He blamed the condition of the toilets on vandalism.

Magistrates told Dykes it was his legal responsibility to maintain health and safety standards at the site. Mr Dykes was fined £30,000 with £3,500 costs. The Magistrates noted it would have been cheaper to have had an efficient cleaning system in place originally.

There are a number of relevant Standards appropriate to washroom provision of which employers and Union reps should be aware. The provision of facilities specified by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (the ‘Regulations’) is covered below. The same Regulations also specify the provision of washroom equipment to include basic minimum standards. These include the following.

Water and soap dispensers

Regulation 21 of the Regulations states that ‘washing facilities ... must include soap or other suitable means of cleaning’. In addition, facilities must provide ‘a supply of clean hot and cold, or warm, water (which shall be running water so far as is practicable)’.

Warm air dryers and paper dispensers

Regulation 21 of the Regulations states that ‘washing facilities ... must include towels or other suitable means of drying’. 

Sanitary disposal

The Approved Code of Practice for Regulation 21 advises that ‘in the case of water closets used by women, suitable means should be provided for the disposal of sanitary dressings’.

Toilet roll holders

The Approved Code of Practice for Regulation 21 advises that in the case of water closets, ‘toilet paper in a holder or dispenser ... should be provided’.

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