Health agency fined £25,000 over deadly bug spill at lab

Prosecutors said the incident exposed a "general complacency" about the transfer of infectious waste at the HPA's centre in Colindale, north London.

No one was infected as a result of the spillage in October 2007, although three employees had been put at risk of contamination, the Old Bailey heard.

The court was told that faulty "bins" used to carry the bug and other infectious waste – including samples of plague – to be safely disposed of remained in use even though defects had been spotted 17 months earlier.

At the time of the accident, employees taking E.coli to a disposal unit were not wearing protective clothing, said Andrew Marshall, prosecuting. An initial assessment of the spillage by staff at the centre had shown a "complete lack of understanding of risk", he added.

Judge Martin Stephens said the failings were an "acute embarrassment" for the HPA, an independent body set up by the Government in 2003.

In addition to the fine he ordered the agency to pay costs of 20,166.

The court heard that an HPA employee called Neil Perry – who had not been properly trained in the transport of the waste – was handling the bin when one of his hands slipped, it swung down to the floor, and the lid came open.

Glass tubes holding semi-solid samples of the bacteria fell to the ground, with some of the lids breaking and others coming off in the fall, said Mr Marshall.

The spillage contained approximately 10 billion organisms of the O157 strain E.coli, representing between 100 million and one billion doses of the bug.

The Health Protection Agency pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a breach of health and safety legislation.