November 24, 2017
With the first signs of winter just around the corner, we look at some simple ways to keep people safe and healthy when thing get slippery. It’s almost become a winter tradition in the UK to be caught unawares by “sudden” cold snaps, the “wrong kind” of snow and plummeting temperatures. But as the nights…
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October 20, 2017
Any employer could be forgiven for being confused about how to protect workers in these times when we are increasingly on alert for terror attacks in the UK. But it is not just a matter of safeguarding workers as they go about their business – it’s also about knowing where they are, particularly for those…
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October 1, 2017
Following a successful challenge by a firm in September 2016, the HSE has announced a new procedure to challenge Fees for Intervention (FFIs) bills and Notices of Contraventions (NoCs). The new process, which came into force 1 September, will require the HSE to disclose information to complainants about how inspectors decided the organisation was in…
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September 12, 2017
The death of a new mum in a Spanish hospital has underlined the need for safe practices and procedures when using elevators. Just hours after delivering her third child by caesarean section in Valme Hospital in Seville, 25-year-old Rocío Cortés Núñez was crushed when the elevator began to move before the trolley she was on…
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September 1, 2017
In the sunnier months we tend to hear little about norovirus, but a recent suspected outbreak at the Athletics World Championships in London highlighted the ongoing, all-year-round risk the virus presents. Here we look at what it is and how to reduce the chance of infection. A common virus with nasty effects Norovirus is the…
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July 7, 2017
The UK’s care home sector has faced renewed criticism after a report found that up to 1-in-3 care homes are unsafe with staffing issues, resident falls and medication errors amongst the top issues. In a recent report featured in the likes of the BBC, Guardian, and the Telegraph, the Care Quality Council (CQC) announced “some…
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June 19, 2017
When we’re working through a heatwave there’s always pros and cons. While the sun cheers everyone up on day one, by day three you start to hear mutterings among staff – it’s boiling in here! Isn’t it about time we got air conditioning? It’s against health and safety to work in this temperature! And while…
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June 14, 2017
Deaths in care homes are, to a certain extent, a natural occurrence, but those which aren’t leave serious questions to be answered and unfortunately require investigations. In this blog we look at the most recent court cases and the issues which most commonly lead to fatal incidents in care homes. Window fall led to resident’s…
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May 7, 2017
When we think about working at height we think of dizzying towers and neck-straining altitudes but, officially, ‘work at height’ means any work that is carried out above or below ground where someone could fall and be injured. Even a height as minimal as the bottom rung of a ladder is deemed to be working…
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April 21, 2017
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…
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March 7, 2017
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 &…
View PostFebruary 24, 2017
Lifts, lifting equipment and lifting accessories are essential part of modern life. They remove the need to climb numerous flights of stairs in an office and make working in an industrial environment more tolerable. Often, lifting equipment is used to make a job safer but when that equipment fails there are disastrous consequences for users…
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