Keep Abreast of Safety Issues

The last two / three years have been a very busy period in terms of the rate at which new health and safety legislation has appeared and has needed to be complied with by those affected. 

While some of this legislation will have only applied to some of you, a good deal of it will have applied to you all.

If it did apply to you, then hopefully you will have fully implemented the management of the new noise regulations with their reductions in decibel exposure levels and doses along with the requirement, under some circumstances, to provide health surveillance.  www.hse.gov.uk

Also, if it applied to you, you will have hopefully fully implemented a vibration exposure management system and observed the mandatory requirement to carry out health surveillance here as well once certain daily exposure doses are reached.  www.hse.gov.uk

Meanwhile, the major changes to workplace fire management which will have affected you all should now be well and truly in place and should consist of a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment which has fully considered the protection of property, the safety of occupants and the safety of fire fighters along with protection against arson.  www.communities.gov.uk/fire

Similarly affecting you all, it would be hoped that you will have now addressed all of the requirements of the smoke free workplace legislation and that correct signage has been posted / erected, that all smoking outside is within an area which conforms with the ‘50% rule’ and that any shared workplace transport is also now controlled to protect employees from passive smoking at work.  www.smokefreeengland.co.uk

Of course the really big one recently has been the arrival of ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act’ and you should all be ensuring that you have fully and properly addressed the arrival of this significant piece of new legislation.

The Act will make it easier for large and medium sized organisations to be prosecuted for serious health and safety management failures that lead to a death at work.

A good starting point will be to ensure that you are aware of and working towards the IOD / HSE guidance on Director’s Responsibilities (INDG417) www.hse.gov.uk  As ‘at work’ also includes any employees driving the public highways whilst working for you I would strongly advise ‘driving at work’ policies and procedures to be re-visited as I could anticipate this legislation being used for the first time where someone causes death by dangerous driving whilst at the wheel of a company vehicle.

Finally, please be aware of your responsibilities under the new REACH legislation regarding the need for registration of certain chemicals you may be using.  Detailed guidance is available on the HSE website www.hse.gov.uk just click on ‘REACH’ under ‘hot topics’ at the bottom left hand side of the front page of the site.

Of course further advice and guidance on all such topics is always available from the contributor of this article – Phil Wass of Wass Management Limited see www.wass-safety.co.uk