Upcoming Inspection Campaigns:

• 29th September – 3rd October 2008:
  North East England Inspection Campaign
  Statistics show that work related injury figures for the Rotherham and Hull areas rate in the highest 25% of all local authorities in Great Britain. As a result, the Health and Safety Executive, together with local authorities in Hull, Rotherham and the East Riding of Yorkshire, are to launch a targeted inspection campaign to improve health and safety standards in these areas.
• 10th – 14th November 2008:
  North East England Inspection Campaign
  Businesses in Rotherham to be the focus of concentrated health and safety inspections.

The voluntary sector has a vital role to play in Scotland, with 45,000 voluntary organisations, 13,000 paid staff and up to 1.2 million volunteers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the STUC have teamed up to remind voluntary organisations that they all have a role to play in ensuring the safety and health of their army of volunteers, and to reassure volunteers that they too are protected by health and safety legislation.

PA series of recent seminars held in Glasgow and Edinburgh, organized by the STUC, Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives and HSE has been highlighting to community organisations the help and support available to ensure that they and their volunteers are up to date with the latest legislation, with an emphasis placed on the role of worker involvement and consultation.

HSE Principal Inspector John Blackburn commented:

"Having proper procedures in place is important to prevent accidents and make sure workers and volunteers can work in a safe environment.  Organisations have a moral as well as legal duty to be aware of health and safety, and it also makes financial sense.  Employees and volunteers too, should ensure they take reasonable care of themselves and others, and to co-operate with their employer.

HSE believes it is crucial for volunteers and employees alike to be involved in the safety process. Safety Committees have an important role to play in promoting cooperation on health safety and welfare matters, providing a forum for discussion, ideas and recommendations to the employer and to promote and support normal employer / employee systems for reporting and control of workplace solutions.

Topics covered should include risk assessment and legislation, with emphasis on worker involvement in the process; the purpose of having a safety policy; how a risk assessment helps to prevent accidents in the workplace; workers rights and the role of the trades unions.

Workers and volunteers can be involved in the safety process through a union, safety rep, discussions with staff and other volunteers or use of a staff suggestion scheme."

Robert Atkinson, Occupational Health and Safety Development Manager for the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives said:

"Healthy Working Lives Advisers can provide free and confidential advice in your workplace. Our Advisers work with many voluntary organisations, indeed they are our single largest client group, meaning that all our Advisers have knowledge of the sector and experience of the health and safety issues and appropriate solutions. All the services provided by Healthy Working Lives are free and the voluntary sector can also access a number of free online and face to face training courses to help build staff competence. More information is available through the HWL advice line on 0800 019 2211."

Ian Tasker, STUC Assistant Secretary said:

"As an organisation the STUC understands the constraints that many voluntary sector organisations are under and we recognise the commitment from the sector, its workers and volunteers in delivering services to users.

Our experience has shown that, on the whole most voluntary sector organisations recognise their responsibilities to protect their workers but hesitate on how to develop their health and safety systems and cannot afford to access professional assistance to do so.

This is why initiatives like this to promote worker involvement, utilising the skills and knowledge of the HSE, the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives and the trade union movement are vitally important."

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning companies to take risk assessments seriously and to ensure that measures identified to control risks are properly implemented, after a demolition company was prosecuted this week over a workplace injury.

Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd of London Road, Bagshot, Surrey, was fined £15,000 and £4971 costs after pleading guilty to a breach of section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Nicholas Anderson, one of the company directors, was fined £5000 and £1657 costs after pleading guilty to a breach of section 3(1) of the Act. Both companies were sentenced at the City of London Magistrates Court.

The prosecution was brought by the HSE following an incident on 11 March, 2005. Electrician, Barry Murrell, was seriously injured at the former Pirelli Cables factory at Church Manorway, Erith, after falling more than five metres. His injuries included a broken pelvis, fracture to his right hip, a shattered hip socket and a broken rib.

On 12 December 2005 Biagio Malacaria, a mechanic employed by Alexanders, was working on a car’s fuel system, which involved draining fuel from the vehicle. During this process, his overalls were set alight and he was engulfed in flames. The flames were extinguished by two colleagues, one of whom was also injured in the process. Mr Malacaria was taken to The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, but died from pneumonia as a result of his injuries on 6 January 2006.

HSE inspector, Loraine Charles, said:

"Mr Murrell’s injuries were very serious, but the consequences could have been far worse. The risks of falls from height on this demolition project and the measures needed to control those risks had been identified on more than one occasion; Wooldridge simply failed to implement the necessary measures. The director, Mr Anderson, had personal knowledge of the circumstances surrounding or leading to this accident and he failed to take obvious steps to prevent it."

Mr Murrell had entered the Pirelli tower, which was being prepared for explosive demolition, to reclaim some electrical cable for reuse elsewhere on the site. He and a colleague were on the first floor when he stepped on some steel sheet material, which was covering a hole, and it fell away beneath him.  Mr Murrell landed on the ground floor 5.5m below.

The HSE investigation found that Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd had produced a health and safety plan containing risk assessments that identified appropriate measures, and there was an inspection by a Wooldridge’s Health and Safety Advisor. Nicholas Anderson was declared responsible for health and safety on the Pirelli site and for carrying out risk assessments for subcontracted work. Mr Anderson did not carry out any risk assessments for the electricians, nor did he instruct anyone to carry them out on his behalf.  Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd did not take effective steps to control risks to subcontracted electricians, or prevent access to the tower once conditions within it had become hazardous.  The company did not implement the findings of a previous risk assessment, for work being carried out by subcontracted electricians, particularly in respect of reclaiming the cable from the tower; or provide them with the appropriate information, instruction and supervision in respect of the changing conditions within the tower.

HSE today notified bidders for the new gas installer registration scheme that it is awarding the contract to Capita Group Plc (CAPITA). The contract, which is valued at £14 million per annum, is awarded for a term of ten years and will be signed on 8th September 2008.  

The new scheme will strengthen and improve the governance and performance management arrangements between HSE and the new scheme provider. CAPITA will have incentives to continuously improve gas safety and services to gas consumers and installers and be held to account through a challenging set of key performance indicators. CAPITA will be required to introduce and promote a new independent brand which will provide an excellent opportunity to promote gas safety messages.

The new gas installer registration scheme will run from the 1st of April 2009 and will replace a scheme currently being operated by CORGI.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies to have safe systems in place for manually handling heavy objects after a Lincoln worker suffered a severe groin injury while moving a 96 kilogram oven.

Catering equipment manufacturer Lincat Limited, of Whisby Road, Lincoln was fined £19,400 and ordered to pay £4,800 costs at Lincoln Magistrates Court today after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974*, and contravening two regulations of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992..

An oven assembler and his supervisor were both moving five pizza ovens, one at a time, from a waist-high assembly bench down to ankle-high pallets on the floor, without using any mechanical aids. The employees had not been made aware of how heavy the ovens were or how they should be moved safely, as a suitable risk assessment had not been carried out. The worker suffered a severe groin injury while moving one of the ovens.

HSE inspector Dr. Ian James Ellison said:

"Employers must ensure that this sort of work is properly planned to take account of health and safety risks, and that employees are made fully aware of the risks associated with manually handling objects. This includes knowing the weight of the load, considering any postural constraints of the lift and what equipment to use accordingly. These men were unaware that the weight of this product was more than 15 stone.

" One of the workers also needed almost nine weeks off work because of the incident, which highlights the severity of the injury and the need for a sufficient and suitable risk assessment to be conducted when any sort of manual handling is required."