Safety news

You may or may not (we hope the latter) be aware that if you have a passenger lift you need to carry out a check once every 6 months to ensure that it remains in serviceable condition.  This is much like an MoT on a vehicle and most clients are aware of this requirement.

However, other workplace checks (in addition to the statutory inspection/examination and test) should, reasonably, be conducted by the dutyholder.   Have you considered carrying out checks to make sure the lift drops to the ground floor with its doors remaining open in the event of a fire?  Do you know how to respond in the event of a lift becoming stuck between floors?  Find out more about what might reasonably be expected of you below.

Passenger Lifts: Role of the dutyholder

As the dutyholder you are legally responsible for ensuring that the lift is safe to use and that it is thoroughly examined. These responsibilities include:

1. maintaining the lift so that it is safe to use;
2. selecting and instructing the competent person;
3. ensuring that the lift is examined at statutory intervals (every 6 or 12 months) or in accordance with an examination scheme drawn up by a competent person;
4. keeping the competent person informed of any changes in the lift operating conditions which may affect the risk assessment;
5. making relevant documentation available to the competent person, e.g. manufacturer’s instructions and maintenance records;
6. acting promptly to remedy any defects;
7. ensuring that all documentation complies with the Regulations; and
8. record keeping.

Other periodic checks should also be made. One of the main checks is to ensure that when the fire alarm goes off the lift returns to the ground floor, doors open and that the car remains there.

Another check is ensuring that the lift alarm activates in the event of a fault or breakdown and that communication system (if installed) works, plus;

• Emergency lighting should also be checked periodically.
• Normal function tests should also be conducted.

The frequency of these additional checks should be decided from the findings of a risk assessment. Some factors to consider include:

• The frequency of use;
• Location;
• Age of the equipment;

Further information regarding thorough examination and testing of lifts can be found by visiting http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg339.htm

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

The HSE have released their latest figures relating to deaths, injuries and ill health at work for 2013/14.They have made the statistics applicable for each local authority area so that they can see how businesses in their locality are performing in terms of health & safety.

The Health and Safety Executive is marking its 40^th anniversary with an appeal for businesses in Bristol, Bath, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to prioritise the wellbeing of their workers in 2015.

Figures show that 4 people across the West of England died in 2013/14 and 3,449 suffered injury as a result of work related activity.

Workplace illness statistics also released for the same period showed that across the West of England, 61,400 people were estimated to have been made ill through their work.

Nationally there were 133 deaths at work and more than 79,500 injuries (through RIDDOR) in 2013/14.

The HSE acknowledged that this “is a huge reduction from when HSE was formally established in January 1975 to enforce the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – the statute that underpins all health and safety legislation, and that is credited with making the UK one of the safest places to work in the world. In 1974/75 a total of 651 employees alone were killed, and that is without including self-employed workers whose deaths were not recorded in the same way”.

However, the HSE are urging employers to take more measures in 2015 to ensure that they protect their workforce by improving their health, safety and welfare policies and procedures.

The HSE reported that the following areas were most at risk

• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Waste & Recycling
• Agriculture

They also highlighted the following workplace activities as areas that needed specific attention

• Falls from height
• Inadequate guarding on machinery
• Poorly maintained equipment/machinery
• Poor management of workplace transport

Harvey Wild, HSE Head of Operations for the South West, said:

“The families of the workers in the West of England who sadly lost their lives last year have just had to spend the festive period without their loved ones, while hundreds of other workers were made ill through their work or had their lives changed forever by a major injury”.

“The figures offer encouragement that we are continuing to head in the right direction, but they also show that we can still go further and challenge the industries where there is room to do more”.

HSE Chair, Judith Hackitt, added: “In the 40 years since HSE was formed, we’ve worked with businesses, workers and government to make Britain a healthier and safer place to work”.

“For the last eight years we have consistently recorded one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries to workers among the leading industrial nations in Europe. However, in HSE’s 40th year it is right that we acknowledge the progress we’ve made and look to a future of striving to bring down these statistics even further.”

Information on tackling health and safety dangers in workplaces is available on HSE’s website at www.hse.gov.uk^[1].

Outsource-safety are a health & safety provider with specialists in construction, manufacturing and transport who work with businesses every day to ensure that their health and safety policy and procedures are of the highest standards.

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

Most people now accept that health and safety is something which they often need help with and having an expert to call on when they’re not confident on handling the risks can be a great reassurance.  However, that expert does need certain skills and qualities as well as just paper qualifications, failure to do so has led to a Safety consultant jailed.

Having to occasionally to dig in our heels and say no is not an easy thing to do when the client is paying you but we have to remember what they are paying us for – to protect them and their staff and provide advice that is not just in satisfaction of the regulations but also in line with what is technically and morally right.

Read on to find out about a recent case which highlights exactly why our consultants need both the skills and experience to say no when they need to say no…

Safety consultant jailed

A business director and their retained safety consultant have both been jailed for their roles in the death of a labourer when a basement excavation collapsed.  He was crushed to death following the collapse of a basement excavation in Ellerby Street, Fulham in December 2010.

Conrad Sidebottom a Director of Siday Construction Ltd, and his health and safety consultant Richard Golding, were found guilty on December 2, 2014 of the manslaughter of Anghel Milosavlevici.  Sidebottom was sentenced to three years and three months in jail and Golding was also jailed for nine months.

The court heard how  as the site manager Mr Sidebottom was aware of the dangerous state of the excavation, but had taken no steps to ensure it was safe.  Mr Golding, a qualified health and safety advisor who was contracted out by AllDay Safety Services Ltd, was also aware of the risks as he was responsible for drafting a method statement to be followed to ensure safety concerns were addressed.  However, this document was found to be inadequate, its geenral safety advice was not followed.  Despite Mr Golding having the authority to stop dangerous works, he failed to do so.

DCI Duffield, who headed up the case, commented: “There was overwhelming evidence that Sidebottom and Golding’s failure to carry out their respective roles directly resulted in the death of Anghel Milosavlevici. In this case the danger of collapse was not only foreseeable, it had been specifically identified by Golding in his risk assessments.”

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

When we complete risk audits for our clients we often run through legionella requirements and this usually raises an eyebrow with the client wondering how they could be affected by these regulations when all they have are offices or a warehouse.

People often, mistakenly, think that unless you have a major air conditioning system or cooling towers and an industrial process which needs them that you can simply strike legionella off your list of potential risks as something which does not affect you – and that’s wrong.

Legionnaires disease can be a risk in almost any premises and should that premises have a shower (particularly an infrequently used one as most are).

Consider the risks for a moment, legionnaires disease is caused by inhaling legionella bacteria within fine droplets of water, if the water has been lying around at a warm temperature, say 35oC, these bacteria can multiply quickly. Now consider that shower which you have in you basement;

1. Infrequently used – check
2. Warm water enabling bacteria to multiply – check
3. A build up of scale / slime which gives the bacteria something to feed off – check
4. A mechanism to create fine water droplets to enable inhalation of these droplets – check

So now think about these risks again.  Should you be doing something to manage them?  We think you should.

What to do?

Your next steps are simple.

1. Disinfect and remove scale using a descaler (you can swap shower heads or simply leave the head in a bucket of cleaner for a while, monthly is usually fine for most offices and even quarterly might be appropriate depending on the risk assessment;
2. Flush infrequently used outlets such as showers to stop bacteria building up (if you’re flushing it take off the head to ensure droplets aren’t created when doing this);
3. If the shower is infrequently used consider removing it and taking the ‘dead leg’ back as far as is reasonable;
4. Record what you have done on a simply check sheet or integrate this into your other record keeping for cleaning.

Finally, if you have questions call your retained consultant on 01453 800100, we’re here to help and always happy to hear from you.

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

Some of you may already be familiar with the fact that safety is just one element of our services here.  I have been involved in the ‘health’ side of safety for over 20 years and have been what we like to call an ‘occupational hygienist’ for all of my career.  The noise part of links links closely to occupational deafness.

In truth, there’s not a lot of us about, you can consider us the most nerdy of the nerds if you like (I couldn’t comment) but there really is a place for us health specialists amongst all of the other consultants out there.

One of the services we offer linked to this health side of things is noise assessment and its come to our attention today that deafness claims seem to be the new golden goose for the no win no fee lawyers.

There is good reason for this with the average settlement fee for a deafness claim being around £10,500 rather than the much more modest £500 of a whiplash injury.  For this reason insurance companies have seen claims levels soar in recent years with Royal & Sun Alliance reporting 800 claims every month and Aviva seeing its deafness claims rocket from 2,400 in 2009 to a staggering 11,467 in 2013!

So, what are you doing about protecting your business from occupational deafness claims?

Whilst its true that you have insurance cover to protect you it won’t be long before you see a potentially large increase in premium if some of these claims come your way.  However, the steps which you need to take to protect your business (and keep you in good shape with your insurer and insurance broker).

Next steps

1. Find out if you have a problem – use the two metre rule to see if you need to raise your voice to speak to a colleague.  If you do you might have a noise problem;
2. Speak to an expert – we’re here to help and if you want to chat then we don’t bite! (we won’t even charge you if you want to pass something across us for comment);
3. Get a noise survey done by a competent person (that’s us) if needed;
4. Put in place audiometry to see if anyone in your workplace suffers hearing damage (we offer this too) and test new workers to protect yourself from future claims.

If you have questions then ask us, we’re here (hear) to help!  Check out our video below for more good advice

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

We thought we should publicise this little known part of the building regulations as its something which is often missed not just by our clients but also by the many contractors and construction client which we work with on projects which come under the CDM Regulations.

Regulation 38 is a requirement placed on the ‘responsible person’ on completion of the project or where the building or extension being built is first occupied.

Read on below for more information from BWF Certifire:

Where a building is erected or extended, or has undergone a material change of use, and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to that building or extension, Regulation 38 requires that a package of fire safety information – ‘as built’ information which records the fire safety design of the building or extension – must be assembled and given to the ‘responsible person’ for the premises.

The fire safety information provided should include all fire safety design measures in appropriate detail and with sufficient accuracy to assist the responsible person to operate and maintain the building safely.

Who passes on the information?

The contractor is responsible for handing over the correct information to the client or their appointed representative, and this could vary considerably according to the nature of the building or contract. Typical recipients are likely to be a Health and Safety or Environmental Health Officer , client’s surveyor or architect, or building project manager responsible for the final sign-off of the building contract.  In turn, the client should then provide the relevant information to the “responsible person”

What information should be provided?

A fire door assembly is made up of components which are required to make it perform correctly in the event of a fire. These components include the door leaf, frame, seals and essential building hardware which are referred to in the door’s fire test evidence. Using the wrong components may have a significant effect on the overall performance of the fire door.

It is essential, then, that the information relating to all the components used in the fire door assembly is handed over to responsible person, since this will be necessary in future inspections and any maintenance which may be required.

Contact us on 01453 800 100 if you need expert help with health and safety for a fixed cost or request a call back.

We’ve been working with a client involved in highways and rail for the past year or two and one of their key clients is Carillion.

You may be aware of the zero harm commitments which have been made by a number of the larger construction businesses in the UK and some have also wondered how achievable this might be in real life.

Whilst we willingly accept that this is not a demolition contractor we can say that their work is fr from risk free taking them all over the UK and involving work on high speed roads.  That’s why we were so pleased to have played a small part in their achievement of a zero harm certificate from Carillion.

This is no mean feat and this certificate reflects a full 12 months without a single Lost Time Incident so well done to Vysionics and well done to our safety consultants particularly Derek and Andrea here at Outsource Safety.

Keep up the good work everyone, it seems zero harm is achievable after all!

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

Southwest business insider has just reported that the planned £16bn new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset has been given the final approval from the European Commission.

This means the potential for a lot of work in the Southwest Region. If you haven’t already registered you should do so at; www.hinkleysupplychain.co.uk

If you need assistance with any aspect of safety from documentation to on site visits we’re here to help you, just call on 01453 800100

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100

From Insider media: The plant has been under scrutiny from the European Commission since December 2013, will be the first nuclear power station in the UK in almost 20 years.

Joaquín Almunia, the Commission’s vice-president who is in charge of competition policy, said: “After the Commission’s intervention, the UK measures in favour of Hinkley Point nuclear power station have been significantly modified, limiting any distortions of competition in the single market.

“These modifications will also achieve significant savings for UK taxpayers. On this basis and after a thorough investigation, the Commission can now conclude that the support is compatible with EU state aid rules.”

The new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will be built by EDF Energy. It hopes to start operations in 2023, with an expected operational lifetime of 60 years.

The two reactors will produce in total 3.3 GW of electricity – the largest output produced by a single plant in the UK and representing 7 per cent of UK electricity generation.

The Hinkley Point C project was granted consent from West Somerset Council in January 2012. It could create about 900 jobs.

You’ll have to forgive us for a title which doesn’t seem that descriptive but you either know about this issue or you don’t!

The green labourers card for gaining access to construction sites requires that you have “a qualification equivalent to a Level 1 Award in health and safety in a construction environment”.

The good news is that the IOSH Working Safely course (1 day) has now been deemed to satisfy that requirement. This means that attending and passing this course and then the touch screen operative test (which is part of the CSCS) scheme will enable you to receive a green card.

Quite long-winded we know but it will solve a problem for a great many of our construction clients, see below for a number of frequently asked questions relating to the CSCS Green Card for Labourers and IOSH Working Safely:

Frequently-asked questions

Do I need to pass the IOSH Working safely end of course assessments before I can apply for a CSCS green Labourer card?
Yes – you’ll have to prove you’ve successfully completed the
Working safely course. You can do this by providing a copy of
your Working safely IOSH certificate or IOSH passport card.

How do I apply for a new CSCS green Labourer card?
You’ll need to have completed your Working safely course on or after 01 October 2011 – so within the last three years.  You’ll also need to visit an approved test centre to sit your
CITB Health, Safety and Environment Operative test. For more information, please contact CITB on 0344 994 4488.  Once you’ve successfully completed this test, you can then apply for your CSCS green Labourer card.

How much does it cost to sit the CITB Health, Safety and Environment Operative test?
It costs £17.50.

What does the CSCS green Labourer card cost?
It costs £30 and the card is usually despatched on the next working day.

I’ve lost my IOSH certificate or IOSH passport card – how
do I get a replacement?
You’ll need to contact your training provider and they’ll order you a replacement. There will normally be a charge for this.

How do I renew my CSCS green Labourer card?
You can book onto IOSH’s one-day Working safely course.

Other questions
My training provider wrote their own version of the generic Working safely course and had it approved by IOSH – can my delegates still apply for a green Labourer card?
Yes they can, as long as they have successfully completed the course within the last three years.

Does this include e-learning versions of the generic Working safely course which have been approved by IOSH?
Yes – again, as long as the course was completed within the last three years.

Have IOSH updated the existing Working safely course materials?
No, they haven’t updated the course materials. This is scheduled for 2015.

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100