Four Workers Killed in Birmingham Alone
Health and Safety Services Can Save Lives. Fact!
Health and safety services are there for businesses to use. The legislations surrounding health and safety can be confusing and time consuming and unfortunately many businesses find they are taken to court and prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for breaching one or more of the many regulations and laws designed to protect the lives of others.
Four Workers Killed in Birmingham Alone
During the last twelve months a total of four people died in the workplace in Birmingham and the Black Country. In addition to the deaths a further 900 were seriously harmed in accidents which could have been avoided. The Health and Safety Executive have called out to employers warning them to be vigilant when it comes to the health and safety of others. The fresh warning comes at the start of the New Year after the numbers increased during 2010/2011.
Legal Responsibilities Cannot Be Ignored
As an employee it is essential to remember that it is their legal duty to do all that is possible to create a safe environment in the workplace. Health and safety services can help you to stay within the law by choosing to gain assistance from experts who can explain what is expected by the HSE. Combine this knowledge with training, auditing and risk assessments and your workplace can become safer while you follow the laws regarding what is expected.
High Number of Deaths Recorded
The total statistics for Great Britain are workplace deaths 171 and 24,700 major injuries. This is an increase on the previous year and goes to show that not everyone is following the legislations. Taking risks has resulted in many people suffering and the HSE has prosecuted many firms throughout the year for their lapses in health and safety.
Use Consultants to Make Your Policies Fall in Line with the Law
The Health and Safety Consultants are able to provide multiple services which can help prevent tragic and unnecessary accidents. The experts and the health and safety services are designed to teach you, or provide a service, which can potentially save lives and reduce the number of accidents in the workplace through methods which meet the demands of the regulations.
Whether your business is considered to be high risk or not the laws remain the same and need to be adhered to. Failing to do so can cost your company and yourself hundreds and thousands, could mean closing doors and more importantly can result in others being seriously injured or to lose their lives when trying to earn a living.
Multiple Services Available
Use the health and safety services to create procedures and policies within your business which work and protect everyone. Some of the services on offer include:
- Health and Safety Audits
- Fire Risk Assessments
- Asbestos Surveys
- Construction Safety Advisory Services
- Competent Person
- Document Writing
To find out more about what is available for businesses in Great Britain contact the expert consultants who are ready to assist you. Telephone 0800 1488 677 to speak to a consultant who can help.
Justice Taking Priority in Health and Safety Cases
Until now it has always been a rather long process for cases to go through the courts after someone has been injured or killed in the work place. After the incident there needed to be an investigation and an inquest to discover exactly what happened, which was then followed by the prosecution of the firm by the Health and Safety Executive. However, times are changing and the HSE is looking at ways to speed up the process so that justice is achieved more rapidly.
Years of Anxiety Reduced as Families Find Justice Sooner Rather than Later
It often takes years to achieve justice, and only in rare circumstances have court cases taken place before the inquest has been completed. Now the path to justice will be a lot smoother after an agreement has been reached between the people who investigate and prosecute. If there is a death on your business premises, and there are no charges of manslaughter or homicide, it is now possible to go ahead with the prosecution before the inquest.
Work Related Death Protocol Given an Overhaul
This is due to the recent changes in the Work-Related Death Protocol. The aim is to speed up the process for the families who have lost a loved one. This will help them to grieve and reduce the stress which is added by the prospect of a court case in the distant future. These changes have been given the support of the Coroners Society and are due to be announced by the Work Related Deaths National Liaison Committee, although the changes have already been introduced as of October 1st 2011.
Health and Safety in the Workplace
As a business owner it is your responsibility to do everything within reason to ensure the safety of your workers. It doesn’t matter if the industry you work in is considered to be high or low risk. Should one of your workers die as a result of the injuries caused by a work related accident which could have been avoided then you will be taken to court and face a possible fine or even a prison sentence.
To help you to understand the laws and regulations that are in place to prevent such accidents from occurring you can hire health and safety consultants to work with you. There are numerous health and safety services which can be of huge help to any business. By doing everything possible to protect your workers you can prevent prosecution by the HSE and more importantly help to reduce the risks which are constantly present.
If you are unsure of what you need to be doing it is a good idea to request a health and safety audit. This will look at the policies and procedures that you have in place and highlight the areas of weakness which are putting lives, and your business, at risk. Call 0800 1488 677 to speak to health and safety consultants who can help protect you and your employees.
Electric Shock Results in Huge Fine for Steel Company
An electrician was electrocuted while working for the Cardiff based steel firm Celsa Manufacturing Ltd. Henry Truszkowski aged 51 suffered serious burns as a result of the accident which took place in July 2008. The 33,000 volt was a result of the company failing to properly safeguard high voltage electrical conductors under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The firm admitted their failings at Cardiff Crown Court last week and were fined £96,000.
The Accident Could Have Been Avoided
The accident happened when Mr Truszkowski was working on his own. He came into contact with live electrical conductors as he was in the control room at Celsa’s Castle Works plant. It is essential that the room would be securely isolated which would prevent the conductors from re-energising. This was not the case and therefore as Mr Truszkowski cleaned the conductors and the circuit breakers he was electrocuted. As a result of his life threatening accident he had to spend weeks in hospital and has still not been able to return to work.
Speaking at the court HSE inspector Steve Curry confirmed that the accident could have been avoided if Celsa Manufacturing had made sure that correct and safe working practises were in full operation. He also highlighted the fact that other employees need to control the risks from high voltage equipment.
The fine was made up of £16,000 court fees and an £80,000 fine.
A Health and Safety Audit can save lives and save you money
A Vertis Consulting we use our expertise to help firms and organisations make sure that their health and safety policies and in place and being adhered to on a daily basis. The above accident could have been avoided and has resulted in one man losing his income, and the firm being fined a huge amount of money.
The audit will help to discover the failings in your firm and help to address them before any accidents occur. The areas in which good practices are being carried out will also be highlighted. This helps to see what plans are successful and where you need to make extra provisions to ensure the safety of your employees and the public as a whole.
Veritas Consulting base their audit on HSG 65 which begins with evaluating the systems which are already in place within your organisation. We evaluate the site operations and the internal and external workplace. Our results can identify hazards which are not being addressed, point out any problems regarding the law and regulations.
The health and safety audit can also be used to show that your company is doing everything possible to ensure health and safety policies are in place, which can be used to gain new contracts, and to help HSE investigations with their research if an accident was to occur within your company.
Protect Your Employees and Your Company
To find out more about how the health and safety audit can benefit your organisation please contact our experts on freephone 0800 1488 677. We can help prevent accidents from occurring within your workplace, and show that you are doing everything possible to maintain Health and Safety regulations.
Health and Safety Audit – what’s working? what’s not?
Take comfort in the knowledge that you know your health and safety procedures are 100% correct with a health and safety audit
With all the complexities involved, can you be completely sure that your health and safety procedures are correct and efficient throughout your entire business?
If not, then a health and safety audit might be just the ticket.
What is a health and safety audit?
In an audit, every element of health and safety within your business will be assessed by experienced H&S experts. With this assessment, you will then be able to understand what is correct, what is not, and what can be improved. A health and safety audit will also ensure that your business is complying with all of the latest health and safety legislation.
Times change, situations change, staff change and, unfortunately, legislation can change too. That’s why it’s so important that your health and safety procedures are audited periodically, so you can keep up to date and make sure that your business doesn’t slip out of staying in line with the best health and safety practices.
There’s a lot to look at too:
Policies – Do they abide to the latest laws? Are they thorough and do they cover every necessary scenario?
Practices – Are they as safe as possible as well as efficient? Do they unnecessarily restrict productivity?
Staff – Do your staff have adequate information and knowledge to remain safe? Are managerial staff complying with their health and safety duties and responsibilities?
If you want any or all of these fields checked by an experienced and qualified health and safety expert who understands how businesses work, then Veritas Consulting can help. We’re available for comprehensive health and safety audits which suit your businesses premises, equipment and staff.
Hundreds of businesses have already realised the huge benefits from a Health and Safety Audit – Join them.
Health and Safety Audits – manage safety objectively
To manage safety objectively, Line Managers need arrangements to enable them to monitor implementation of systems against the defined standards.
Often, managers assume that because the written procedures are in place and staff are trained to use them compliance is automatic – this has been proven to be a dangerously erroneous assumption in many cases, for example Kings Cross, Piper Alpha, Clapham Junction, the Herald of Free Enterprise, etc. There is always the danger of the ‘short-cut’ or ‘custom and practice’ being established and very often this is only identified in public enquiries following serious accidents rather than by routine monitoring before the accident occurs.
To manage any aspect of an organisation’s activity the manager must have targets and regular feedback of information on performance. Safety management is no exception, the performance feedback comes from monitoring and incident/accident information.
There are varying levels of monitoring activities, and companies adopting best practice in safety management will have in-house procedures for all of the following:
Health and Safety Audit
Health and Safety Audit is the part of a safety management system which subjects each area of company activity to a systematic critical examination. Each component of the total system is included: management policy, features of the process and design, operating procedures, emergency procedures, training, etc. The aim is to disclose the strengths and weaknesses and the main areas of vulnerability and risk, with the objective of minimising loss through accident and/or plant damage.
The outcome of the audit will be a report, followed by an action plan agreed with local management. The implementation of the action plan must be monitored. A Safety Audit will be carried out by a team of people who are competent and with a satisfactory degree of independence from the plant or unit under audit.
The frequency of the audit will be dependent on management policy.
For example, some companies may audit on an annual basis and use a scoring system to monitor improvements. Others may consider that a full safety audit is only necessary at five yearly intervals. The frequency of future audits is decided by weighing the benefits gained against the more frequent checks of compliance offered by an inspection program following the initial audit.
Some companies prefer to carry out integrated audits, which include not only safety but also environment, quality and other business improvement processes. These audits can only be conducted using the integrated approach when the management systems have already been integrated.
All audits should be pre-planned and a documented checklist of the audit content prepared.
Health and Safety Surveys
These are an in-depth critical examination of one particular aspect of a company activity. These in-depth surveys will be used in response to a concern over safety or the adequacy of a particular activity and may be initiated as the result of an incident, or following analysis of the results of an audit. The survey can be carried out by one or more appropriately qualified persons who will produce a report and action plan with local management. As in the case of audits, follow-up in terms of monitoring is essential.
Health and Safety Inspections
Good safety management demands a structured system of inspections, carried out by different levels of supervisory and managerial staff.
Front Line Supervisors’ Inspections:
The Front Line Supervisor, because of his detailed knowledge of the work and his position as the manager closest to the workforce is a key person in any Safety Management programme. It is a part of the supervisor’s responsibilities to be constantly aware of the safe working in his area of responsibility and he should, as an integral part of his duties, correct any unsafe acts or conditions on a daily basis. In addition, it is good safety management practice for a supervisor to allocate a proportion of his working time to carrying out safety inspections.
These inspections should be pre-planned and an inspection checklist produced, covering all tasks and areas under his responsibility, in turn, and can include “hardware”, i.e. machinery or conditions inspections and “software”, i.e. procedural compliance inspections.
Any of the workforce found to be in breach of the safety requirements should be counselled and advised or retrained as required. Persistent transgressors should be disciplined. Where these breaches are caused by non-existent, inadequate, or out-of-date information, this must be reviewed and updated.
Line Management Inspections:
A vital element of Safety Management is for the Line Manager to be seen to be actively involved and committed to safe working. He must take time to get into the workplace, personally check that the safety requirements are being implemented and communicate with his staff on the job regarding their safety concerns.
“It is the Line Manager’s attitude towards safety which will largely determine the attitude of his workforce”
These Line Management Inspections should be planned and documented and the outcome communicated to the workforce and action taken to rectify inadequacies.
Senior Management Inspections:
The Health and Safety Policy Statement will be issued by the managing director of the organisation, who must demonstrate his commitment to the safety policy by personal involvement and communications with the workforce. Senior management safety inspections are an ideal vehicle for demonstrating commitment between workforce and senior managers.
Incident/Accident Investigation
In any activity in life human beings learn from past mistakes. The quality of the Incident/Accident investigation system is very important to aid continued improvement in safety performance and ensure there is no recurrence of the incident. The incident/accident investigation should contain a number of elements:
- All accidents/incidents should be communicated and all of them with potential to cause personal injury or property damage should be investigated.
- All conditions that could cause injuries or damages should be investigated.
- The outcome of any incident/accident investigation should be communicated to everyone in the organisation.
- Recommendations from incident/accident investigations should be implemented as quickly as possible.
- Investigators should be trained and competent.
- Incident/Accident investigation recommendations should be fed back into improving procedures and training where necessary.
Accidents are not caused simply by human error. There will always be a number of fundamental or root causes.
Investigations should seek these out and not stop at the superficial. For example, an accident apparently caused by a failure to observe working procedures might have more fundamental causes such as: inadequate training; impractical procedures; excessive production pressures; or a working group culture of ignoring formal methods.
Safety monitoring and Incident/Accident Investigation are vital constituents of good practice in safety management.
For a Health and Safety Audit for your business get in touch today
