IOSH blog

Last night the Commons once more disagreed with th...

2012-04-25T11:08:06.459+01:00

Last night the Commons once more disagreed with the amendment, however, they suggested an amendment to appease both sides of the House, whereby mesothelioma cases would be exempt pending a review of the possible impact of the change.

Further to my article, the Bill went back to the L...

2012-04-24T10:29:39.051+01:00

Further to my article, the Bill went back to the Lords last night, where Lord Alton reinserted his amendment. After a powerful debate, the amendment was accepted. It will be discussed in the Commons tonight.

The debate is available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120423-0002.htm#12042340000983

Unfortunately every word and action coming from th...

2012-04-23T15:41:09.286+01:00

Unfortunately every word and action coming from this present government will have the opposite effect of reducing exposure to risks.It is nothing short of a declaration of war on the safety & health of not only workers but all citizens of this country by slashing HSE budget, staffing, Inspections and prosecutions The clock is being set back at least 100 years Previous govnm'ts did little to bring to account employers who deliberately risk workers lives every single day,killing over 1000 per year, but this present one is giving them the green light to ignore H&S altogether in the knowledge that the PM shares their sentiments that protecting workers lives is a'burden on business','unnecessary red tape' the' enemy of enterprise' & he has vowed to end the so called H&S culture altoghether
As one of the thousands of family members who live with the loss of a precious relative, I can say with certainty that many more people will die in the most horrific and unnecessary of ways IN today's Britain Business profit is now considered more important than human life

When we leave home for work in the morning, we nev...

2012-04-20T15:59:45.243+01:00

When we leave home for work in the morning, we never invisage not returning safely to our loved ones. I am shocked to acknowledge that more people die from accidents at work than in war. Lets remember those families who have suffered this loss and make a firm decision to play our part in reducing workplace accidents by safe practice and sensible health and safety management.
All the advice is there, we just have to take it.

Kind thoughts to all those who have suffered loss or injury through workplace accidents.

I like your post so much ... and i like any blog t...

2012-04-10T15:28:30.316+01:00

I like your post so much ... and i like any blog talking about Health and Safety and a lot of things just follow me in Articles2day.Org

It is no surprise that standards in the industry h...

2012-04-06T00:00:47.751+01:00

It is no surprise that standards in the industry have dropped. Despite several high profile incidents many companies still have the attitude of putting profit before safety. Unfortunately this attitude shows no sign of altering which is no surprise considering the severity of David Cameron's attacks on health and safety culture in the UK.Unfortunately there are too many ill informed people who think its their devine right to comment on such matters and you only need to look as far as the first two posters for the proof.
Jeff

I have personal experience of tanker drivers emplo...

2012-04-05T16:03:34.085+01:00

I have personal experience of tanker drivers employed in the LNG industry that had no specific training in handling LNG. These drivers were unaware of even basic safety precautions such as trycock and safety slam shut operation. The drivers had ADR certificates but privately admitted that the dangerous goods training they had undertaken was very poor and not fit for purpose. I am fairly sure that at least some of these drivers were being encouraged to book the time taken to fill/empty tankers (when they needed to be in attendance monitoring the process) as rest periods, thus enabling them to extend their driving hours.
In this instance it was the intervention of third party TU safety representatives that highlighted the problem and worked to ensure that the drivers were provided with adequate training prior to being allowed to transport LNG.
The motivation for these actions was purely health and safety driven and had nothing to do with the pay of the tanker drivers or the safety representatives involved.

A powerfull film, I'm not in the industry but ...

2012-04-03T00:10:24.622+01:00

A powerfull film, I'm not in the industry but I understand that drivers have to have regular checks, maintain their "Haz Chem" licence and are governed by other legislation such as monitoring of hours via tachographs. I agree safety standards must be maintained and improved where practicable. Are the creators of the film suggesting the Buncefield incident was caused by a driver from one of these 'contractors' who was not competantly trained?

I wonder whether as usual 'elf and safety' is being used as a convienant tool to beat the management with?

This is self serving rubbish put out by the union ...

2012-04-02T17:39:56.621+01:00

This is self serving rubbish put out by the union who's staff are paid in the region of 45K a year.
Drivers hours are regulated as are speed limits. All drivers will have to aquire the Certificate of Proffesional Competance or loose their vocational licence. This is about a small powerful clique preserving thier dominance in the market nothing more.
David

I believe Chris Grayling has pointed out what i se...

2012-03-06T23:29:26.098Z

I believe Chris Grayling has pointed out what i see to be a faliure in many small to large organisations.
The senior managment appear to focus on just doing enough to pass current legislation with the correct documentation, but appear to have little or no understanding of how to implement the EHS managment systems contained in the documentation in question.

Good EHS managment systems do rely heavily on the attributes of directors and line managers, when one looks into many case studies, most deaths or injurys are down to a lack of competant managment.

IOSH need to drive home the requiement for 'competant and quailified ' managment in the work place, to implement what is contained in the EHS policy.

Thank god David Cameron has not ended up as a diretor of a large construction company working on building sites, he would proberly insist on a wear what you like day once a week along with his 'hug a hoodie' day.

I'm sure that Chris Grayling was accurately pa...

2012-03-05T20:17:33.686Z

I'm sure that Chris Grayling was accurately passing on the information he was given but how about a counter-challenge? Let IOSH investigate the company concerned to find out if they are really just paying for the "insurance" of an unread manual sitting on the shelf or if, as in so many cases, the story has been so simplified it bears little relationship to the real situation.

The MD of one of my manufacturing clients once informed an fire officer that his company safety policy did not include any fire control procedures. This came as a great surprise to his Operations Director who had been instrumental in developing a comprehensive Fire Risk Assessment with precautions, controls and training. Fortunately, the enforcement officer was happy to forget about the ignorant MD once he confirmed the shop floor employees were competent!

I think that Chris Grayling is as guilty as David ...

2012-03-05T17:02:36.349Z

I think that Chris Grayling is as guilty as David Cameron of isolating health and safety and ignoring many significant other issues that small businesses face. No-one seems to mind that businesses can be started by people with no financial acumen whatsoever - after all they will employ an accountant to look after all that for them (and anyone can set themselves up to look after the tax and accounts affairs of small businesses, no qualifications required). Someone running a small business will often have no expertise beyond what they actually do - they employ an accountant to do their accounts and manage their tax affairs, a web designer to manage their website, broekrs to advise on insurance requirements etc etc. What is so wrong with using the professional services of a qualified H&S professional to assist in the area of health and safety? Ok, there are some rubbish health and safety professionals out there, and some rubbish accountants, rubbish web designers, etc etc. As with any professional, businesses should focus on picking who will do the best job for them. It is reasonable for a business to have to act as an unpaid tax collector on behalf of HMRC (as all VAT registered businesses have to, and face significant penalities for one error in calculation), but it is not reasonable for them to take resonsibility for considering the risks they create for their staff or others? Slight double standards I think.

I believe Chris Grayling makes a valid point which...

2012-03-05T11:28:16.596Z

I believe Chris Grayling makes a valid point which clearly demonstrates the lack of education in some business owners in regards to applying the benifits of a effective Health & Safety Management System and feeling that by just getting a consultant to produce the goods is good enough. However we must also encourage the consultant whi do this work to stop doing this and make sure they add the training and support to use the system/s effectively

Health and safety in the workplace is an issue tha...

2012-01-11T07:31:55.346Z

Health and safety in the workplace is an issue that affects all businesses. Implementation of an occupational health and safety system has now been mandated by law in many countries. Introduction to OHSAS 18001 Training will help you to comply with the legislation and devise a system to ensure a safe environment in the workplace. It will also introduce a management system to help reduce the risk of accidents, litigation and downtime.

None of this article surprises, I have hardly lift...

2012-01-04T15:15:40.833Z

None of this article surprises, I have hardly lifted a newspaper and have certainly not bought one since serving in the Balkans in 2000, after reading the Suns lies about what we were doing!

Dear Shaun As a retired safety practitioner and a...

2011-12-19T18:52:07.248Z

Dear Shaun
As a retired safety practitioner and a simple person myself, I like to simplify much of what I see. And therefore can not understand the confusion! Are all the MPs who are interviewed on the TV and in the papers aware of the difference between civil litigation and 'The Law' the system that they keep quoting and denigrating?

H&S at work is fine when administered correctly 'so far as is reasonably practicable'. That's it, full stop, period. However, the constant fear of civil prosecution for simple 'acts' that have 'some risk' is where the employer (whether Private/Public Company or Local Government) starts to become so concerned that they normally cease those simple 'acts'. This litigious atmosphere is where the Government should intervene and reduce the spurious superfluous actions of the 'I've been injured, what can I get?' compensation brigade.

Let us not forget that the act of streamlining wil...

2011-12-15T00:51:55.061Z

Let us not forget that the act of streamlining will in itself introduce a significant burden

Presently industry is playing the 'Staying Ali...

2011-12-08T19:30:19.323Z

Presently industry is playing the 'Staying Alive' theme tune to the exclusion of everything else,especially Health and Safety.The bad publicity the profession has received over the years through over precription will not disappear at our command.Perhaps we all took our eye off the ball by chasing the 'no risk work place' when the element of acceptable risk should have been accepted from the beginning -as it always has been by practical Safety Advisers working in the field.Perhaps the profession became too academic

I have been giving so much thought to the Young an...

2011-12-08T12:43:27.059Z

I have been giving so much thought to the Young and, now Lofstedt reports and, wonder after 35 years as a H&S practitioner that it's me who is wrong. I am guilty, especially in the Mid 70s, when H&S management was extremely poor, of producing a sudden mountain of procedures to comply with HASAWA (Lord Robens and a very credible Act he produced). And from then on with the introduction of EU legislation, primarily MHSAW when risk assessment hit the UK. there was a mad rush for all industries to produce the most confusing RA procedures and forms, to the extent now that suitable and sufficient has dissapeared, with demands from some quarters of industry that an RA produced by a small contractor has to be approved by them, and, if it is not what they think is good eneough to ridicule it and, refuse it, even though it is more than suitable and sufficient. So Lofstedt is right, we need to reduce the paper work, which is now becoming ridiculous, especially where CDM is concerned, and, to start looking at manageing real risks. I am also guilty in the past of producing forms for almost every activity, such as check lists EG: step ladders, scaffolds, step ladders, hand tools, protable tools, you name it. As much of this was not driven by the training I received at Uni, it certainly was driven by major clients and major contractors as part of vendor approval process. I could go on, but would finaly say that we must not water down to much, as our H&S in the UK is the best in Europe, and, we are still trying to improve on statistics. So lets comply with current legislation (With a few adjustments) reduce paper work, and target the reason why people take serious risks to get a job done, because it's not paper work that keeps people alive its the way we behave. I have been trying to use behavioural change as a means to improving H&S, and, it's been a long hard road to get where I am at the moment,because I believe that there is not another piece of legislation or form that I can think of that will reduce accidents. If someone can, let me know.

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2011-12-07T20:29:16.454Z

Quantum life distributes quantum biofeedback devices, quantum ilife app, cem tech milli Wave therapy, scalar wave laser, quantum wave laser and the life system biofeedback device including qxci and indigo biofeedback.

Don't worry about it Shaun, it's just a di...

2011-12-06T10:43:00.213Z

Don't worry about it Shaun, it's just a different Government spin for a new audience.

Like Ray, my concern about Lofstedt is that bits will be cherry-picked. You can't expect the average self-employed roofer to actually read it, so they will believe what they read (the incomplete story) on the BBC as spun by the DWP.

How many of them won't get past the bit about the self-employed that said "exempt from H&S" and so will never see the "low risk occupations and no risk to others" bit?

Easy to think this won't happen but i still meet lots of small tradesmen who think it's illegal to use ladders because they read it in the Daily Mail

What we need to be careful of, is that the combina...

2011-12-05T19:28:02.464Z

What we need to be careful of, is that the combination of Lord Young's report and Lofstedt's report don't turn into a 'Beeching's Axe', and do to Health and Safety in this country what he did to the railways!

Far too many people are working unsafely, and these 'reports' only fuel the 'I don't need it' brigade.

As a practitioner I am genuinely concerned about t...

2011-12-05T15:38:46.183Z

As a practitioner I am genuinely concerned about the government's attitude to H&S. I feel that it is a political football and we may lose the enviable position of having a H&S system we can be proud of.

Shaun. Big people admit they can be wrong - not su...

2011-12-05T15:37:09.063Z

Shaun. Big people admit they can be wrong - not sure you were at the time. I think that the H&S industry put a very positive spin on this report, but a couple of papers saw it completely opposite. Same report, different 'filters'.
What are WE going to do next, that's the question. One for IOSH. I despair of the dogmatic view of some H&S 'professionals', all of whom have passed exams and most are members of IOSH. What are we teaching and testing? Of we are all so out of synch, why?

Hi Shaun. Don't beat yourself up about it. I s...

2011-12-05T15:31:08.379Z

Hi Shaun. Don't beat yourself up about it. I suspect Lofstedt will remain a hot topic for us in the H&S world and will quickly be forgotten by the government - until it suits to have another pop. The Red Tape Challenge will be next - and from what I saw on the web at the time, many of the opinions were positive and FOR H&S, although others reflected the influence of the irreputable insurance / civil back protecting myths which Prof. Lofstedt rightly identified. Cutting the H&S legislation by 50% - well that is good spin, but can easily be achieved by the chopping, tidying and condensing as recommended. There are only really about 20-25 regulations (max at any time) which will genuinely be relevant to most businesses. And often far fewer. But we don't 'sell' this concept, maybe it has suited our profession to make things look as complicated as possible! Politicians also have agendas. Just being provocative.