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Category: Safety news

Health & Safety Consultants, SSIP, CHAS, SMAS, Management Systems Specialists, Occupational Hygienists

Environment Agency follows HSE’s lead with ‘Polluter Pays’ charges of £84 per hour

Our work covers not just health and safety consultancy but also environmental consultancy and one thing which clients should be aware of is the PICR (Pollution Incident Cost Recovery) Scheme. Its really very similar to the HSE Fee For Intervention scheme, albeit at a lower fee per hour of £84 rather than £124. You should…
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Revised ACoPs have now been issued in draft by HSE, what are the changes?

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…
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Guarding of pillar drills – please don’t repeat this accident

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).…
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Small businesses are spending more on outsourced and external help with health and safety

According to the Forum for Private Business “Sweeping changes” to health and safety laws due to take effect in October should, we are told, see a significant drop in the time and costs spent by smaller business in ensuring they remain compliant with health and safety legislation. The FPB, whose research of 4000 of its…
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Health surveillance is part of COSHH – you did realise that didn’t you?

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…
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Lyme disease and the risk to landscapers and construction workers

In May 2013 a petition was handed to the Department of Health demanding better diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.  You may be aware of its existence but many are not but it can present an occupational risk which affects a range of professions and trades with up to 3,000 new cases being reported each…
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Contractor questionnaires: SSIP – a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

If there is one item guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows and the blood pressure of our clients its SSIP contractor approval schemes, contractor questionnaires and PQQ’s (Pre Qualification Questionnaires). Such as CHAS, SMAS, EXOR and Constructionline.  We help hundreds of businesses achieve SSIP in at little as 2 days, call Andrea directly on 01453…
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HSE planned revision to ACoPs (Approved Codes of Practice) will you be affected?

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…
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Construction sites blitzed by HSE as Fee For Intervention (FFI) continues to bite smaller contractors, trades and installers

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…
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Designers receive guidance on best practice for minimising risk from working at height

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…
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