What’s with all our health and safety legislation? Where did it come from? Why do we have it? If you’ve never stopped to ask these questions about our current health and safety laws, read on. Years ago – long before we enjoyed the benefits of a health-and-safety-conscious UK – it’s highly likely you’d have risked your life at work every day. Particularly if you worked in a cotton mill. Forced to work long hours in horrific conditions workers would invariably get sick or contract a…
With only weeks to go until we leave the EU, it’s important to understand just how Brexit will affect health & safety. What’s going to happen? Which H&S regulations will be affected? How will it all affect your H&S team’s processes and procedures? What do you and your team need to do now in order to be compliant on the 1 April 2019? Read on for the answers – and take a deep breath because the good news is we don’t think too much is…
If you're a business owner, manager, HR professional – or just generally curious about the risk you face from health & safety factors – you'll be interested in the story this new campaign is telling you. Business risk is a different slant on health & safety but it matters because, in 2016, the Government changed the sentencing guidelines for prosecuting health & safety breaches. As a result, businesses, business owners, directors and employees are receiving more and higher fines, with figures of £1m+ for bigger…
The past year has seen some horrific fires break out in homes and workplaces across the United Kingdom, from the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower to the blazes in a Primark store in Belfast and the School of Arts in Glasgow. And it is not just buildings that have been affected, with this summer also seeing fires ravage the Manchester Moorlands. Fires can be devastating, leading not only to the loss of life but the destruction of businesses, property and local wildlife. They can be…
Businesses will need to review their COSHH Assessments after a new Directive from the EU significantly reduced exposure limits for 31 chemicals in a bid to boost worker health. Six of the chemicals have had their exposure levels halved, while 14 others have had an exposure level set where none had previously in place. It means businesses handling these chemicals will need to review their COSHH Assessments to ensure their people are not put at risk – and the business is compliant – under this new…
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Working at Height has just closed the evidence-gathering stage of the UK’s first ever inquiry into the number of serious injuries and fatalities resulting from falls from height and falling objects in the UK workplace. With 18% of those who died at work in 2016/17 killed due to a fall from height, this case serves as an important reminder that such incidents are not restricted to the construction industry. Background An employee at meat production company York House…
Published on 8th February 2018 the Supreme Court ruled on an Appeal brought to them by the Health and Safety Executive which followed the overturning of a Prohibition Notice at an Employment Tribunal in May 2013. The ruling allows for evidence, that wasn’t available to an HSE Inspector when serving either a Prohibition Notice or an Improvement Notice, to be brought to the attention of the Employment Tribunal at the time of the appeal. The case centred around a corroded staircase on an offshore platform…
If you haven’t run a thorough safety check on your doors in the past few years, this recent story might shock you. In a traumatic turn of events, a four-year-old primary school pupil’s fingers were trapped in a toilet door, resulting in partial amputation. The board of governors pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974 and was fined £4,000 plus costs of £1,750. Where did the school go wrong and what can you do to prevent…
A utilities company has been fined £1.8 million following the death of a man in a water filtration tank in a case that should serve as a stark reminder for companies with lone workers on or off site. The father-of two died in December 2013 when he fell into six and a half feet of water inside the tank while unblocking a filter at a water treatment works. Despite activating the company’s lone worker alarm system it wasn’t until he failed to respond to a…
A lot has been said to condemn and approve the introduction of Fees for Intervention (FFI) after the introduction of the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012. The Regulations were written to empower the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to recover costs from companies who were found to be in material breach of health & safety law. The HSE states a material breach is defined as follows: “A material breach is where you have broken a health and safety law and the inspector judges this…
