Safety

Do your employees need to Work at Height? If you don’t put measures in place to plan, manage and monitor the project properly or you could face a huge fine. Recently, a man from Birmingham was fined £3000 and ordered to pay £1255.30 in costs at Sandwell Magistrates Court for failing to properly plan or…

Does your business work with asbestos? If so, your employees may be required to be under surveillance by a doctor. A new law, which came into force in April 2015, states that any employee or self-employed contractor undertaking “Notifiable Non-Licensed Asbestos Work” must be subject to Health Surveillance by a doctor. However, this level of surveillance does…

Summer is almost upon us and we can all enjoy hot sunny weather… but beware it has its dangers. During a prolonged heat wave there are health risks. The very young, the elderly and the seriously ill are groups who become particularly at risk with health related problems (sun stroke, dehydration). “In the 2003 heat…

Could your workers’ attitudes towards Health & Safety be causing accidents in your business? A large number of accidents in the workplace are caused by employees behaving in careless or unusual ways. Since the 1974 Act, businesses generally focused on managing safety in practical terms – i.e. guards in place, edge protection checklist etc. However,…

All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men… shouldn’t ever need to be called upon because you and your employees are fully versed in how to Work at Height…aren’t you? One of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries is falling from height. Working at height can be defined as ‘work in…

We are all looking forward to enjoying the summer months – but working in a warm office can be very uncomfortable for some employees. Heat stress occurs when the body fails to control its internal temperature.The effects of heat stress can vary from person to person, likewise some people are more susceptible to it than…

Fifty Shades of Grey sparked the biggest baby boom in 40 years, according to a recent news article. There are a number of press stories linking the release of the 50 Shades of Grey books to a Baby Boom. This month saw the release of the film so perhaps we should be prepared for a…

Distracted by warm, tasty pancakes? When people enthusiastically reach for the frying pan, lemon and sugar – some end up needing the Fire Service or the A & E department too. Pancake Day, while seen as a fun day by all, can be more dangerous than most people think. It’s a time when those who…

As an employer you must ensure that adequate levels of first aid are provided. Accidents and sickness are not planned events and can happen to any one at any time. Your workplace does not have to be high risk for an accident to occur. If one did, what would you do? How would you manage?…

We’ve all done it… “It’s New Year, it’s time to start going to the gym, start an academic course and stop smoking.” People may have good intentions at New Year but they often fail to take action. So how can a review of your Health and Safety in 2015 be an action more than a good…

Are you making sure that all of your office electrical points are fit for purpose? Because you should – in reality, infrequent PAT tests simply won’t cut it. ’13 amp plug tops’ are in every day use and should be safe to use they also form part of the portable appliance testing (PAT) procedure. The…

Putting aside all the pros and cons regarding the safety of e-cigarettes as an aid to stopping smoking, the Fire and Rescue Services have issued warning about using them. Fire and rescue services are attending to more e cigarettes incidents then ever in 2012 they attended 12 so far this year they have been called…