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Latest News 2012
Health & Safety News April 2012
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New Asbestos Regulations Come into Force
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, will come into force on 6 April 2012, updating previous asbestos regulations to take account of the European Commission's view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC). In practice, the changes are fairly limited and mean that some types of non-licensed work with asbestos now have additional requirements, i.e. notification of work, medical surveillance and record keeping. All other requirements remain unchanged, e.g. relating to licensed work with asbestos, duty to manage, risk assessment, the asbestos control limit, control measures and training requirements.
Further information will be available from 6 April on HSE's Asbestos website - http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) Change - 6 April 2012
From 6 April 2012, subject to Parliamentary approval, RIDDOR's over three day injury reporting requirement will change. From then the trigger point will increase from over three days' to over seven days' incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened).Incapacitation means that the worker is absent or is unable to do work that they would reasonably be expected to do as part of their normal work.
HSE charging scheme delayed
Contractors were braced for bills of up to £124-an-hour from next month when inspectors were due to start charging contractors for their time if safety breaches were discovered on site.
The HSE has confirmed that the "cost recovery" plan has been delayed until October at the earliest. But it insisted the scheme has not been dumped and "is still going ahead" despite outrage among contractors.
HSE's programme director Gordon MacDonald said: "The government has agreed that it is right that those who break the law should pay their fair share of the costs to put things right - and not the public purse.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) was supposed to be implementing its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), in April 2012. However, it has still not been able to work out the technical detail of how the scheme will work, despite practice runs with it. It now hopes to implement the new system in October this year.
The scheme sets out to recover HSE costs from those who break health and safety laws.
CD239 - Proposals to remove fourteen legislative measures
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 This consultative document seeks views on the Health and Safety Executive's proposals to remove fourteen legislative measures (one Act, twelve Regulations and one Order and with a related provision in the Factories Act 1961) and to withdraw approval for an associated Approved Code of Practice.
This consultation began on 3 April 2012 and will end on 4 July 2012
Respond to the consultation using the online questionnaire on the HSE site or download a response form to complete.
Grayrigg derailment: Network Rail fined £4m
Network Rail fined for health and safety failings that led to 2007 crash in Cumbria that left one dead and 28 seriously injured.
Network Rail has been fined £4m for health and safety failings leading to the 2007 Grayrigg train crash that killed one passenger and injured 86. Grayrigg is the last of three recent high-profile prosecutions and fines for Network Rail over incidents dating back a decade. Last month the company was fined £1m over the deaths in 2005 of two schoolgirls on a level crossing at Elsenham station in Essex. Last year it was fined £3m for the faulty points that caused the 2002 Potters Bar crash, which killed seven people.
Please call our office on 01204 597454 or email sales@onestopsafetyservices.co.uk for more information or advice about these articles.
Local Health & Safety Executive Press Releases
28/03/2012: Carlisle boss fined after ignoring fire warnings -
The owner of a pallet manufacturing firm has appeared in court after he allowed fires to be repeatedly lit at his premises next to gas storage sites in Carlisle. George Ward, of Rockcliffe in Carlisle, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their safety.
27/03/12: Widnes firm fined over employee fall injuries-
A Cheshire worker could have been killed when he fell from the top of a chemical storage tank, a court has heard. His employer, Hutchinson Technical Services (HTS) Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an investigation into the incident at its Ditton Road site.
20/03/12: Demolition firm sentenced over asbestos danger -
A demolition firm has been sentenced after knocking down a building in the Lake District containing hundreds of asbestos ceiling tiles. IBT Contracting Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after carrying out the work at a former photography factory in Staveley, despite not having a licence to remove asbestos.
05/03/12: One in five construction sites fail safety inspections -
Nearly one in five construction sites failed safety checks during a national initiative to improve construction site safety - a slight improvement on previous years. Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited a total 3237 sites, saw 4080 contractors, 581 sites were found to have practices that put workers at risk with a total of 870 enforcement notices issued and in 603 instances work had to stop immediately
See the HSE website for full details on these stories
Please call our office on 01204 597454 or email sales@onestopsafetyservices.co.uk for more information or advice on any of these subjects and how they may affect you and your business.
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