The coalition have long promised to tame the health and safety monster.  As we have previously reported, most of this has been huff and bluster about removing a third of regulations and scrapping various requirements.  The overall impact on business has been little or no change.

We now have the first of the revised Approved Codes of Practice (ACoP) being issued in draft form for comments and this will give a good indication of the likely impact of the planned changes.

ACoPs are important as they set a base level against which compliance can be judged.  In effect, HSC translate European Directives into UK law and HSE give background and guidance through ACoPs on how UK industry should or could comply with these new requirements.  This is quite valuable and is also used when making a legal argument as to whether a business has complied with its duties under law in the case of prosecutions and claims in the civil and criminal courts.

HSE has been tasked with updated all existing ACoPs and many rumours have surfaced including cutting all documents to no more that 32 pages and cutting out a number of them altogether.  Now that the ACoPs for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 have been released we can start to learn more about what the approach of HSE is likely to be.

The changes

Beyond the addition of some hyperlinks taking you directly to guidance material on the HSE website there is a lot to report beyond the fact that the are an easier read and some updates have taken place to remove references to legislation which is no longer in force.

The summary:  keep on doing what you’re doing.  The changes are looking to be subtle and the only reports where duties and requirements are being cut are made in the headlines of papers and on press releases from the government – if anything changes rest assured that we’ll do our best to update you!

If you have questions on health and safety or would like to work with a young, business focused, dynamic team of safety consultants (no, really, we are dynamic and business focused – especially compared to our competition) then please contact us or directly on 01453 800100.  We don’t have a sales team and so you’ll speak directly to a person able to answer your questions.

We are only too aware of the reluctance of many businesses to put in place guarding to the chucks and spindles of pillar drills.  We also insist that smaller pillar drills are fixed to the floor to prevent toppling in use (or at least to a large metal plate for smaller works and occasional use).

Read the following and you might see where we’re coming from…

As an occupational hygienist I did realise that, as a business person with a lot of hats to wear it’s entirely feasible that you didn’t.

If I was a new HSE Inspector tasked with fining people for material breaches of health and safety regulation then Regulation 11 of COSHH is exactly where I would start and I would hit my target for the two month cycle in less than two weeks!

My point is this, health surveillance is something which many people, even safety professionals, can find somewhat confusing resulting in it being put on the shelf to sort out at a future date.  This is why HSE is pushing it as something which needs attention and also why Fee For Intervention is targeting it.

Our advice is not to delay and to get some simple measures in place, for example; staff exposed to solvents on a daily basis should have some checks to make sure their health is being protected.  To begin with why not make use of the simple forms which we can provide to carry out dermatitis and respiratory health questionnaires.

When your staff have completed the forms review the and if they have concerns sit down and talk them through (bearing in mind that health problems can be caused just as easily by what they do outside of work, away from your protective equipment and controls, as they can by what they use within your business).

If you raise some issues you can follow up on this with a simple desktop review or ask one of our occupational hygienists or workplace health consultants to do this for you.  We’ll run through all aspects of the problem and help you determine what might have caused the problem, if it is related to their job and how you can go about controlling the risk and improving their health.

For many businesses simple questionnaires are all that’s needed but when you have higher risk substances and repeated exposures costs need not be high.  Even biological monitoring for the isocyanates used in 2 pack paints and adhesives can be easily completed using urine test kits at a cost of around £50-60 per person.

the bottom line is that you do need to do health surveillance, its written into the COSHH Regulations and has been for years.  Remember, this doesn’t have to be complicated, if you’re already a member of our Safety~net support service just call us and we’ll advise you without charge.  If you’re not yet a member just click here to find out how little it costs to join, click the link and you’ll be under our wing and talking to an expert safety consultant or occupational hygienist in minutes, use the contact links above to reach us or call us on 01453 800100

Reference to the COSHH Regulations:

Regulation 11(9) details the duties on the employer once an employee is found to have an identifiable disease or adverse health effect.  The employer should ensure that:

• the employee is notified and advised about further health surveillance;
• the risk assessment is reviewed;
• the measures taken under Regulation 7 are reviewed;
• consideration is given to assigning the employee other work; and
• the health of any other employees who may have been similarly exposed should  be reviewed e.g. another medical examination is required.

HSE has now confirmed that the ACoP which supports the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 will be removed along with an overhaul of many other ACoPs.

ACoPs are acknowledged to set the benchmark against which HSE judges the provisions made by industry and so have been very useful in the past serving as both a minimum standard and an example of turning legislation into practice.

However, all is not lost. The lost ACoP will be replaced by a new suite of guidance documents including the Health and Safety Made Simple Toolkit and the Health and Safety Toolbox, both of which are present already on the HSE website.

We can also look forward to seeing a new guidance document as the updated HSG65 – ‘Successful Health and Safety Management’ looks likely to be produced sometime late this summer.

So the answer to the question is yes, you are likely to be affected by this change, however, the new guidance promises to be more detailed and explicit in its content.  Expect to see samples of documents, risk assessments and similar documents, so although this is a change, it might just be a positive one.

Note: In addition to the above we can expect to see a simplification of the existing 5 documents covering the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 as they are planned to be consolidated into a single document aiding their application, simplicity and, perhaps, their enforcement.

If you need help or advice on health and safety please contact us or request a call back – or call and speak to a friendly expert on 01453 800100.

Linked to our recent article on Fee for Intervention (FFI) we have heard that the HSE have been very active again on construction sites, particularly in the London region.

In all nearly 2,500 sites were visited and almost all of these were where refurbishment or repair works were in progress.

A total of 631 enforcement notices were served, 451 of which were prohibition notices  demanding that work be stopped immediately and until corrective action was taken. How many thousands of pounds were issues in fines under FFI remains unknown but given HSE’s slow start on the total of £37 million for the current period we would expect this to be in the tens of thousands.

High-risk activities, such as work at height, excavations, removal of asbestos, and so on plus site equipment, including its installation, assembly and maintenance arrangements will be checked on. One surprise addition was the issue and management of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) something which doesn’t always figure highly in an inspection but perhaps a pointer for the future as targets loom and need to be hit on FFI.

If you have a project running and would like to discuss how to best protect yourself against fee for intervention please contact us.  Similarly, if you have already been hit with a FFI fine and wish to appeal please contact one of our experts to assist you in the process.  Use the contact methods above or call us on 01453 800100.

If you need help or advice on health and safety please contact us or request a call back – or call and speak to a friendly expert on 01453 800100.

A new British standard provides key guidance for architects and others involved in design and the CDM process for minimising and controlling residual risk for work at height.

Working at height remains the biggest killer in the UK workplace and for that reason anything which helps to address the risks and remove them at the design stage must be a positive step worth supporting.

If you have the opportunity to attend we are involved in organising an event focusing on controlling work at height risk through our relationship with the WWT (Working Well Together campaign) our MD, Roger Hart is Treasurer of the South West WWT, book your place here; Work at height event, 3rd July 2013

Whilst its true to say that the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 already require that work at height risks are designed out at the planning stage, it cannot be said to have always worked in practice.

Although we accept that the demands of clients and aesthetics must be met, further measures are justified and we hope that the publication of a new British Standard will help; BS 8560:2012 Code of Practice for the Design of Buildings Incorporating Safe Work at Height.

The Code of Practice addresses the basic hierarchies of design ideas, ranked from most to least desirable, plus summary information about the constraints and limitations of various practical solutions such as a lamp requiring replacement.  In this case, access by Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (scissor or booms) is addressed with reminders to design in adequate access routes for the equipment and ensure the installed flooring can withstand their considerable weight.

Using the guide designers must consider; “the extent, nature, duration and frequency of work to be done at height, so that appropriate equipment and techniques for use in construction, cleaning, maintenance and repair can be identified”. This must also be done at an early stage enabling conflicts between proposed equipment or work methods and other factors are more easily resolved.

Design teams are encouraged to seek input from the client’s facilities manager and others such as the construction contractor at the planning stage. Something which was always present within the CDM Regulations and which a good CDM Coordinator should try to ensure but an element which is still missing from too many projects.

If you need help or advice on health and safety please contact us or request a call back – or call and speak to a friendly expert on 01453 800100.

Welfare on construction sites has been an issue very close to the heart of HSE for a number of years and with good reason.  A worker on a construction site should be able to expect a reasonable standard of welfare provision.  When this comes to exposure to the substances used this becomes even more important and there is a tendency amongst staff to be dismissive of the requirements despite the nature of concrete being quite hazardous – burns from concrete can be severe and not felt at the time of exposure.

Inadequate provision for welfare on construction sites leads to prosecution and fine