Spider bites, falling tiles and soup burns... Parliament’s costly injuries are revealed
£12,200 ...awarded to a cleaner who slipped on a kitchen floor
£18,190 ...paid to another cleaner after a celing tile fell on their head
£ 13,299 ...was payout won by a motorcyclist who fell in a ‘dusty’ car park
CRUMBLING Parliament is costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds in compensation payouts, figures revealed yesterday.
Five-figure sums in damages and legal costs have been paid out in four cases, while another three are pending.
The payments were revealed in a dossier following a Freedom of Information request which also revealed a host of more minor mishaps that befell Westminster staff and visitors between 2015 and 2017.
Cases which did not result in compensation included spider bites, scalds from hot porridge and soup, a cut lip from a coffee cup lid and a series of trips and falls.
In one accident which led to compensation, a ceiling tile fell on a cleaner’s head, resulting in a payment of £18,190.
Another cleaner received more than £12,200 after falling on a “contaminated” kitchen floor and needing treatment for back and elbow injuries. A man who fell from his motorcycle in a “dusty” Parliamentary car park won £13,299.
And a diner visiting the House of Lords was paid nearly £20,000 after a waiter slipped and splashed hot water on him. The cost of meeting personal injury claims comes out of the Commons’ and Lords’ taxpayer-funded budgets.
Pending cases include someone whose thumb was injured when an automatic fire door closed unexpectedly and another whose arm was trapped and injured by a malfunctioning revolving door.
A third involved a claimant who in 2015 fell while boarding an Underground train while carrying work equipment.
There is more than one case of staff catching arms in lift doors, while one person reported an electric shock while plugging a phone charger into a socket. Uneven surfaces, steps, newly polished, wet and greasy floors, and trailing and covered cables were culprits in several trip accidents, although a “momentary lapse of concentration” and “human error” were the verdicts in some falls.
In 2015 there were two separate incidents of customers spilling porridge on their hand and finding it so hot it caused blisters. And one man went to A&E after splashing hot soup in his eye.
Kitchen collisions and accidents caused burns and slips while catering staff were reminded in 2015 about the danger of chillies after an apprentice chef rubbed his eye while chopping one.
Other reports included a paper cut from filing and a leg fracture when someone “went for an awkward shot” at table tennis.
In 2016, a parliamentary assistant was bitten on the foot by “a small insect, possibly a spider,” falling from a gift bag she was unpacking. And an official tour guide heroically finished their shift before going to hospital after their foot was run over by a motorised scooter.
A House of Commons spokesman said: “We have in place robust arrangements, including a network of fully trained first aiders, to help prevent accidents and work to reduce harm wherever possible.”