HSE Consultation on Cost Recovery
The HSE 3 month consultation on the fees they will be charging companies that do not comply with legislative standards ends on 14th October; it is anticipated that charging will start in April 2012. A basic fee of £133 per hour has been proposed although this may be increased where specialist advice is needed.
The fee is only charged where there is “a material breach of health & safety law” which, I had assumed, meant circumstances justifying a formal notice or prosecution. However, the proposal is for a material breach to be anything where the Inspector confirms the breach in writing! And there are very few inspections where the Inspector simply offers a few words of advice and walks away!
Good news for some is that the proposed cost recovery is currently limited to HSE; premises inspected by the local authority are not included (at present!).
European Week of Safety & Health 25 – 31 Oct
This year the subject is “Maintenance” and is considered to be part of the larger Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2010 – 2011. Further information and resources such as posters can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/safemaintenance/campaign-details.htm.
Healthy Workplaces
ADVERT ALERT
Time is rather short but I may be able to help if you wish to run a campaign, update your maintenance risk assessments or run some short training sessions.
Review of Health & Safety Laws
The Löfstedt review of health & safety legislation is expected to consider if the riots were, at least partially, due to the absence of common sense in our excessive health & safety culture. Quite why the Prime Minister should make this link has not been explained.
The review is certainly looking at ways of reducing the burden by reducing regulation. Quite how putting requirements of the manual handling, welfare, DSE and several other regulations into the management regs (where they should have been in the first place) is going to reduce the burden has also not been explained. And for anyone that thinks we should just the ditch the plethora of support regulations – great idea but not feasible under EU requirements.
RIDDOR Update
HSE have recommended that the reporting of injuries causing time off work be changed from 3 days to 7 days. Two out of three respondents to the consultation process earlier this year supported this proposed change.
Works-related Death Protocol
Until now enforcement officers were not allowed to take safety prosecutions involving death until a coroners inquest had been held. This has caused considerable delays in the Justice system; sometimes resulting in potential prosecutions being dropped. The protocol has now been updated and signed by the various enforcing organisations, HSE, CPS, Local Government, Police etc. Advice is now given on cases that need to wait for an inquest but should allow for much faster action in many cases.
Director on Manslaughter Charge
One of the directors of a small construction company has been charged with manslaughter after a wall they designed and built collapsed and killed a 3 year old girl.
Recent Cases
£10,000 fine and £5,366 costs for the company that failed to put in any precautions when they decided to steel-clad an asbestos cement roof. Some of the roof was quite strong but it was not possible to identify the fragile areas from the rooftop. Standard precautions such as crawling boards, edge protection or fall nets were identified in a Method Statement but were not used. A self-employed roofer went through the roof on his first day on the job and, two years later, has not been able to return to work.
A crushed wrist and 4 months off work for the machine operator that reached into a machine to remove a blockage. An interlocked gate to prevent access to the machine was defective and had been tied open to facilitate easier access. The company were fined £20,000 and £6,000 costs.
A risk assessment of a remote work site, undertaken from the comfort of the assessor’s car, failed to identify there was a 12 metre drop adjacent to the work area. A maintenance worker, called out at night, took a fall, broke his back and died 10 days later. The construction company were fined £100,000 with £18,093 costs and the operating company £100,000 with £36,186 costs.
Safety & Health Practitioner, September 2011
£6,000 fine, costs of £3,000, 100 hours community service, an evening curfew and a 6 month suspended prison sentence for the former owner of a takeaway that failed to address systematic failures of food safety. Lack of refrigeration, broken equipment, a deep fat fryer balanced on house bricks, uncovered waste bins and food scraps across the yard were just some of the 33 offences. The premises are now under new management.
A fly tipper has been banned from driving for 3 months as well as fines and costs totalling £1,635.
Environmental Health News, September 2011