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Getting safety right on a multi-occupancy site
Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008
In a multi-occupancy site, individual employers need to work with each other, as well as with landlords and contractors, so that everyone knows exactly who is responsible for what and where. Without this, hazards can too easily slip through the net until something goes wrong or someone gets hurt. Where do your safety duties begin and end? Lucie Ponting finds out.
Alarm systems for site-based lone workers
Peter Swan | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008
Personal alarm systems that allow lone workers to call for help if they are attacked while out and about are widely issued by employers with field staff now. Peter Swan considers the uses of automatic alarms for site-based lone workers.
SMEs: statements of intent
Paul Reeve | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008
It is a legal requirement that employers with five or more employees have a written policy statement on health and safety, including the organisation and arrangements for carrying out the policy. In the second of our series on management basics for smaller businesses, Paul Reeve focuses on how to lay the foundations.
Staying in one piece: slips, trips and falls
Eddie Bailey | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008
Slips, trips and falls currently account for one fatality a week and 38% of all major workplace injuries. Last month the HSE launched a campaign, Shattered Lives, which is aimed at creating a step-change in the attitudes of both businesses and their workers in several sectors. The HSE's Eddie Bailey explains how it will help practitioners win hearts and minds.
Have we lost our way with risk assessments?
Paul Smith | Features | HSW | 06.03.2008
Risk assessment has become a central plank of our safety philosophy and practice. But are we missing the points? Paul Smith of Empower Training suggests the overwhelming emphasis on written risk assessments has sent us off the right path.
Corporate killing: lines of inquiry
Mark Tyler | Features | HSW | 06.03.2008
In the previous two articles in this series we examined what exactly the new offence of corporate manslaughter consists of and the issues organisations need to focus on to reduce the risk of being charged with the new offence in the event of a fatality. In his final article on adjusting to the legislation, Mark Tyler explains how to plan for a fatality investigation.
Leeds Hospitals' burning issue
Sara Bean | Features | HSW | 06.03.2008
Peter Aldridge understands better than most how the Fire Safety Order works. He was awarded the Chubb-sponsored Fire Safety Manager of the Year prize at the annual Fire Industry Awards last June. Sara Bean talks to the award-winning fire safety manager about the challenges of complying with the new regulations.
When things go wrong - health and safety sentencing
Howard Fidderman | Features | HSB | 27.02.2008
Nine years after the Court of Appeal concluded that fines for health and safety offences were too low, how have the courts been sentencing employers convicted of health and safety crimes? And what will be the impact of the new sentencing guidelines for manslaughter when they come into force later this year? Howard Fidderman believes that sentencing should not be left to the courts.
Know-how: safety data sheets
Lawrence Bamber | Features | HSW | 14.02.2008
In the first of two articles on safety data sheets, Lawrence Bamber examines the need for, and composition of, safety data sheets and takes into account the relevant legislation, including the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (CHIP 3) and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH).
The merits of risk registers
Duncan Spencer | Features | HSW | 14.02.2008
Effective safety management is not helped by a belief that all safety matters equally and we must act on it all at the same time. Some organisations fail to fully understand the ALARP principle and look for ever more robust controls for all their risks, regardless of how low. Duncan Spencer argues the merits of risk registers.
Right on the edge
Jacky Walker | Features | HSW | 12.02.2008
HSE figures show that since the Working at Height Regulations came in, the number of workers suffering major injuries as a result of falls from height has increrased. Jacky Walker looks at guard-rail systems as a way of protecting your workforce.
Focus on: the safe use of fixed ladders
Dr Dave Merchant | Features | HSW | 12.02.2008
Everyone knows portable ladders are dangerous things. They cause nearly 1,200 major injuries and 13 deaths each year. But what about fixed ladders - the ones that everyone forgot? So-called safety cages on fixed ladders are more likely to break employees' limbs than break their fall, warns Dr Dave Merchant.
Are your homeworkers secure?
Howard Fidderman | Features | HSW | 11.02.2008
Last month we looked at the more traditional health and safety aspects of homeworking, particularly equipment and electrical issues. In this concluding feature, Howard Fidderman considers the issues that have increased in importance - although not always in risk - over the past decade, including security and communications challenges.
Focus on: fragile roofs
Features | HSW | 11.02.2008
More than one in five fatalities resulting from falls from height in the construction industry involve people falling through fragile material. The HSE says that, on average, one person a month dies at work after falling through a fragile roof or rooflight. Andrea Oates steps gingerly across the delicate subject of work on fragile roofs
Keeping safety high on the board agenda
Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 11.02.2008
The supplier of half the UK's sugar has developed a model of director responsibility that goes way beyond any guidance, where board members are each responsible for discrete areas of safety such as fire or contractor management. Jocelyn Dorrell talks to British Sugar's company safety manager about the firm's director-led approach to safety management.
Demolition began with workers still inside
Features | HSP | 05.02.2008
A Hertfordshire trader who began to demolish a building while workers were still inside must pay £25,000 in fines and costs. An HSE investigation revealed SJB had not checked the area or issued any warning before beginning the work, with the inspector adding that it was a great mercy that no member of the public was injured.
Firm fined £20,000 after four hurt in floor collapse
Features | HSP | 28.01.2008
Construction firm Excelcare Developments has been fined £20,000 for safety failures which led to four workers being seriously injured when the floor they were working on collapsed. HSE Inspector Amanda Huff described the accident, which happened at a site in Bromley, as avoidable, adding that the firm broke every rule going.
A culture phenomenon
Tim Marsh | Features | IIRSM Newsletter | 23.01.2008
Difficulty in estimating how contrary people can be is a key learning point. Telling them to adjust is almost the worst way to make change happen. However, if people decide themselves to adapt, the outcome can be vastly different. Dr Tim Marsh discusses how affective safety management can benefit the workplace.
Asda pays £267,000 for car park death
Features | HSP | 22.01.2008
Supermarket chain Asda has been fined £225,000 plus costs after admitting safety failures over the death of Kenneth Farr, who was killed when a security barrier smashed through the windscreen of his car as he drove into the car park of Asda's Cardiff Bay store.
SMEs: making small beautiful
Paul Reeve | Features | HSW | 14.01.2008
there is an array of health and safety information aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and there is no doubt that some of it, for example the HSE's web-based information, is very good. In the first of a new series simplifying health and safety management for small businesses, Paul Reeve outlines the basics of a management system
Liverpool Council's ticket to drive
Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 14.01.2008
The corporate manslaughter legislation has put driver safety in the spotlight. Jocelyn Dorrell reports on Liverpool City Council's behicle safety training programme, which involves every employee who drives as part of their job.
Site specifics: corporate killing
Bridget Leathley | Features | HSW | 14.01.2008
Bridget Leathley highlights the most useful websites offering guidance on the new corporate manslaughter offence.
Club together
Louis Wustemann | Features | HSW | 11.01.2008
If two heads are better than one, how much better are 14? David Gault would argue 14 work well when it comes to solving workplace problems. That's the number of members in the Shropshire Health and Safety Group. Louis Wustemann sat in.
In peril on the sea
Becky Allen | Features | HSW | 11.01.2008
Lifeboats are archetypal pieces of safety equipment - they exist to protect lives. So why, asks Becky Allen, do they also kill and maim dozens of seafarers?
House of hazards?
Features | HSW | 11.01.2008
Numbers of home teleworkers have increased rapidly in the past decade as employers embrace flexible work patterns, pushed on by government encouragement and business demands. In the first of two articles, Howard Fidderman says discharging your duty to safeguard homeworkers is not so hard.
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