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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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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You are most probably aware of the duties you have as a client to select contractors which are competent and adequately resourced for safety Particularly when working at height using equipment such as a MEWP (Mobile Elevating Work Platform). Sometimes you will also need to convince others within your supply chain or business of the…
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HSE now has a policy of ‘looking beyond the garden gate’ in construction accidents. in this particular case the directors of a roofing business, and also the director of the business which contracted this work out to them, have seen custodial sentences (see our earlier blog for another example of this type of prosecution: Directors…
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We work for a number of education establishments and the risks within them are diverse, its a challenge for a person or a small team to manage each of them. This example represents a situation which could arise in any number of similar organisations when risk isn’t adequately controlled, the consequences here could have been…
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The Board of HSE met in December to discuss the draft HSE Construction Sector Plan for construction for the coming 3-5 year period, the summary of the points for consideration are listed below with the emphasis being placed on Health, Smaller Business and CDM 2015; HSE Priorities (HSE Construction Sector Plan) Health Hazards – reducing…
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Firstly, a Happy New Year to all our clients, friends and contacts. Sitting over the Christmas period gives you time to think on a few things and with Brexit still being a point of discussion I was thinking of the foreign workers who continue to provide a huge amount of resource in our country and…
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A local authority (acting as a CDM Client) and its two contractors have been fined in excess of £1.5 million following two incidents involving roadworks on a busy Liverpool city centre road. A man died and another was seriously injured while attempting to cross Queens Drive in Liverpool during major resurfacing works which happened in…
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In a move which we suspected might come to pass some years ago it has been announced that health and safety enforcement may change for smaller businesses. During July 2016 the HSE ran a consultation on health and safety enforcement allocation. Chiefly, it looked at the role of the local authorities. A range of options…
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The owner of a Gloucester takeaway (Best Takeaway, 136 Eastgate Street, Gloucester) has this week been prosecuted for serious breaches of fire safety legislation. Ilhami Ince, originally of London, appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on the 15th August 2016 for failing to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This hearing followed an earlier…
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