We have seen health and safety fines rise by 10-15 x over their former levels since the Sentencing Guidelines were introduced in 2016 (see our earlier article for more information). In the past few months alone there have been a number of high value, high profile fines, including: Network Rail fined £4 million for the…
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Oxygen is used throughout many sectors of industry and healthcare. This common element can be taken for granted as we are so familiar with its name and its use. Are you aware that; increasing the concentration of oxygen in air from its normal 21% to just 24% can make an enormous difference in how easily…
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It can be tempting to allow staff, particularly those who are helpful and keen, to undertake maintenance tasks within your workplace. You can sometimes hear a staff member state “I could have sorted that for you!” When you have staff which have worked in other roles through a diverse career and the work seems reasonably…
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What are your legal obligations as an employer when staff are exposed to UV radiation? The Health and Safety at Work Act makes it clear that there is a legal duty on every employer to ensure, as far as reasonably practical, the health of their employees. It also says that employers must provide “information, instruction,…
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HSE often attends sites which have been reported as dangerous by members of the public. In fact, we hear of these visits quite regularly and they can be as a result of genuine concerns or perhaps as a result of noise, dust and other disturbances causes nuisance to neighbours. The case below relates to a…
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Many construction site managers may remember hearing a statistic being talked about on past training courses that one person a month dies just walking past a construction site, it often forms part of the CITB Site Managers Safety Training Course This statistic has been brought tragically to life by an accident which occurred in Hanover…
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We are all used to HSE visiting site and reviewing our arrangements on safety. If these fall below expected standards we typically see Fee for Intervention costs (FFI) and the possibility of the serving of Improvement or even Prohibition notices. What’s unusual is when a HSE Inspection results directly in prosecution. HSE launches several campaigns…
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Temporary works are an area where greater focus on safety is required. Some confusion can still exist over who takes responsibility for these areas and risks can sometimes be underestimated. The case above involved the construction of a foundation for a large steel structure as part of the foundation for a pressure test facility at…
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Both the building owner and the contractor they employed to demolish a structure have received heavy fines following safety failings which led to an uncontrolled collapse onto a high street in November 2013 and the CDM Client fined £160,000. It is a requirement of CDM 2007 (now replaced by CDM 2015) that a construction CDM…
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We’ve been carrying out face fit tests and advising our clients on the selection and use of RPE (face masks and similar) for many years now and often come across staff sporting a beard. Our position as occupational hygiene specialists means that we have been more exposed to this issue more than many of our…
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