On 11th September 2018 our beautiful seven-year-old son Harvey was electrocuted in the garden at the King Harold Public House, Harold Wood, Essex. His death was completely avoidable.

The pub owner plead guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and his brother in law was found guilty of a Health and Safety Breach due to his negligence in installing the garden lights safely. Both are serving prison sentences.

From the amount of evidence that was collected it is clear that the law around electrical works in a public house needs urgent attention. The current mandatory regulation is the Electricity at Work Regulations – Regulation 4 deals with the need to keep records and have the installation regularly tested and Inspected. However, this is down to the duty holder to provide the relevant certification and there is no one monitoring or checking that the standards and safety is met. The King Harold has had no checks since 2009. 

Although there are a number of pubs that adhere to health and safety, there are also a number of pubs which are complete death traps, visually they may look nice but it’s what’s going on behind the scenes is a major concern.

We want to campaign that every public house should have to provide yearly certification that the electrical works have been tested and inspected. The fee for the inspection should be added onto the license fee. Failure to comply with this, the landlords insurance and license should be made void and a fine should be issued. The local authorities and licensing departments should be in control of enforcing this and monitoring their local public houses. 

We can’t bring our beautiful baby boy back but we can help save the lives of others by making sure public houses are a safe place to dine and drink.