UK Health and Safety Consultants
Dhesna Wise, Diesel London Ltd
Sept 2011 - Quantum Newsletter
Changes to HSE incident reporting and information service
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Health and Safety News
Changes to HSE incident reporting and information service
Businesses are being reminded about new incident reporting arrangements being introduced from Monday 12 September.
Only fatal and major injuries and incidents will be able to be reported by phone to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with all other work-related injuries and incidents reportable under RIDDOR to be reported via one of a suite of seven online forms available on HSE's website.
Later this month, HSE's Infoline telephone service, which currently provides a basic information service to callers, will end. Instead, from 30 September, those seeking information and official guidance will be directed to HSE's website - a huge knowledge bank where they can access and download resources and use interactive web tools free of charge.
Various improvements have been made to HSE's website to coincide with the closure of Infoline.
There is clearer information on what HSE does and doesn't do, so people can check that HSE is the right organisation to assist them, and expanded 'question & answer' sections for the most frequent health and safety enquiries, such as those on RIDDOR reporting and First Aid.
HSE continues to provide information and guidance to employers and workers in a range of other ways: through direct work with organisations and trade associations, face-to-face workshops and safety training days and via books and eBulletins. A comprehensive suite of health and safety advice is also available via the Government's website for businesses "Businesslink.gov", and DirectGov.
People will still be able to make complaints about health and safety in the workplace. For more information on how to do this visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/workplace-complaints.htm(to be updated from 30 September).
An epidemic of excuses wrongly citing health and safety, is needlessly curtailing people's personal freedoms, Employment Minister Chris Grayling recently announced.
In what has been described as the Government finally “seeing sense”, the minister conceded that it is misconceptions about, and misapplication of, health and safety legislation – rather than the laws themselves, or health and safety professionals – that have contributed to its negative image.
The minister went on to blame “middle managers in councils and companies [hiding] unpopular decisions behind health and safety legislation” for diluting common sense, and urged people to challenge such dubious decisions, wherever possible.
His statement comes a week after the prime minster, David Cameron, also acknowledged that health and safety rules are often “lazily trotted out” to justify all sorts of wrong-headed actions.
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Health and Safety Guidance
The Local Government (LG) Group has initiated work to develop important new sector-led guidance on fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats. This was after landlords articulated a number of concerns about how best they can deliver an appropriate level of fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats.
LG Group has worked alongside local authorities, private sector landlords and management agents, housing and environmental health professionals and fire and rescue services to produce this guidance.
This sector-led guide has been developed by, and for, the housing sector and enforcing authorities to provide specific advice relating to purpose-built blocks of flats.
The guidance gives practical, comprehensive and proportionate advice across all housing sectors. As sector-led guidance, it does not introduce any new standards or regulations, but clarifies a number of complex issues around risk assessment and fire safety management. This is to ensure that the residents of these buildings get appropriate advice from their landlords on what to do in the event of a fire.
These buildings are only a small part of the scope of other guidance documents.
This document is intended to assist responsible persons to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Housing Act 2004 and it is expected that enforcing authorities will have regard to this guide.
The guidance has been funded by Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Electrical Safety Council and produced by CS Todd and Associates.
The guidance complements existing fire safety guidance made available by DCLG and Local Government Regulation (formerly LACORS).
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Quantum Risk Management
Health and Safety - Fire Safety – Training
Asbestos Surveys – Water Safety
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Health and Safety Court Round-Up
Fine for releasing asbestos at Birmingham office
Two Worcestershire companies and a contractor from Hall Green have been prosecuted for releasing asbestos fibres during an office refurbishment project in Birmingham city centre.
Inspectors from the HSE uncovered a series of failings during the refurbishment project work that included upgrading a lift containing asbestos insulating board.
Birmingham Magistrates' Court heard how building owners Evanacre Colmore Row Ltd and project managers Marchment Consulting hired builder Roland Morewood to carry out work.
When lift engineers arrived, they found pieces of asbestos insulating board spread around the lift shaft area and refused to carry on working.
HSE inspectors stopped all workers from going into the building until it had been decontaminated. Air tests taken on several floors of the premises revealed significantly high levels of asbestos fibres, which were also found in several vacuum cleaners.
Asbestos insulating board was found stored in Roland Morewood's van, which itself was heavily contaminated with raised levels of asbestos fibres in the air. By law it should have been disposed of by a licensed contractor.
Evanacre Colmore Row Ltd, of Cottonfields New Road, Cutnall Green, Droitwich, pleaded guilty today to breaching Regulations 11(1)(a) and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.
Marchment Consulting Ltd, of Kidderminster Road, Droitwich, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 11(1)(a) and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.
Roland Morewood, of Mapleton Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 8(1) and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £823 costs.
Lessons learned from worker's loft fall
An independent school in Cambridgeshire has admitted work-at-height failings after a teenage worker fell through a loft and landed in a swimming-pool changing room.
Huntingdon Magistrates' court heard that pool-attendant Stacey Paine, 19, and the swimming-pool manager were searching for paperwork in the loft when the incident took place at Kimbolton School, near Huntingdon in 2010.
Ms Paine was walking across a roof beam when she lost her balance and stepped on to the fragile part of the roof, which gave way. She fell 2.5 metres to the tiled floor below, narrowly missing a tiled bench. She suffered a fractured wrist but nobody else was injured, as the changing room was empty.
Kimbolton School appeared in court on 26 July and pleaded guilty to breaching reg. 9(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £8000 and ordered to pay costs of £2276.
In mitigation, the company said it had a good health and safety record and had no previous convictions. It told the court that it didn't carry out a risk assessment as it was not aware that staff were using the loft as a storage area. It has subsequently put a lock on the loft hatch to prevent workers from being able to access it. The company has also removed all storage items from the loft.
Company fined after man dies in machine incident
A Manchester-based company has been fined after a night shift worker died when he was trapped in a machine at a factory in Berkshire.
The HSE prosecuted Duco International Limited for failing to provide a safe system of work which led to a death at a site in Eastbourne Road on the Slough Trading Estate.
Reading Crown Court heard Mitesh Prashar, 24, of Slough, was operating an automatic inspection machine, which quality checks rolls of rubber and cloth printing blanket before sending to customers. The blanket moves through the machine from one reel to another via a photographic unit, checking the fabric for flaws.
Though nobody witnessed the incident, at about 2am on 15 January 2008 colleagues heard Mr Prashar cry out. His body was subsequently found with his left arm, shoulder, head and torso trapped between the rubberised blanket and the roller. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The HSE investigation found the company had not assessed the hazards of using the machine and it had not been checked after modification. Inspectors also found there was no guarding to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the machine and Duco International Ltd had failed to give adequate information, instruction or training to employees using the machine.
Duco International Limited, of Varn House, Northbank Industrial Park, Irlam, Manchester, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The firm was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £43,352.
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News from Quantum...
New property website
Quantum recently launched a new website dedicated to managers and owners of commercial and residential property. It has been created to compliment the company's main website.
Visit http://www.property-hs.com/ for more information or follow the link from http://www.hsconsultancy.com/
Added 22 February 2012
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