You often hear people saying that they wish that they could get some ”Health and Safety Help”. This can be because the they have been given health and safety as an add-on to their normal job role and they just dont have time or they are struggling with actually knowing what they are supposed to be doing.

Health and Safety Help

For example if you want some health and safety help on Agriculture you can find it on the HSE Website HERE

Health and Safety Help

Health and Safety Help

Health and Safety Help

Health and Safety Help

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A new programme of safety and health awareness days for farmers (SHADS) has got off to a flying start, with the first two over-subscribed.

692 farmers attended the first two events in Salisbury and Illminster with a further 25 planned across Britain for 2012/13 from Orkney to Somerset.

Farmers are being encouraged to respond to their invitations straight away to avoid missing out.

SHADs are voluntary, free events run by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), to help reduce death and injuries in one of Britain’s most dangerous industries. They offer practical tips and demonstrations on such topics as machinery safety and livestock handling.

Feedback from the events in 2011 was extremely positive with 99 per cent of farmers surveyed saying they would recommend them to others.

Farm SHADs diary

Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs) are practical demonstrations covering the everyday hazards that farmers face.

If you wish to ask about attending an event, please email the HSE at   agriculture.shads@hse.gsi.gov.uk.

Why not subscribe to HSE free e-bulletin? We will provide you with bi-monthly updates on the SHADs and other relevant farming issues.

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£399.00 per course (certificate of attendance).

A one day course.

Maximum 10 Candidates per course

Safety Harness Course Aim:

To provide candidates with the knowledge and skills needed to safely and thoroughly inspect and use safety

harnesses

Who Should Attend:

This course is designed for people needing to use Safety Harness Inspection and Use

Course Contents:

Health and Safety Law and Relevant Regulations

Types of fall arrest systems

Inspection of safety harnesses

Inspection of man made Fibre Ropes

Fitting and Adjustment of harnesses

Subjects That Will Be Covered During the Course:

H.A.S.A.W.A. 1974

Working at height regulations

PPE Regulations

Objectives:

On completion of training, candidates should have an understanding of the types, grades and uses of Safety Harnesses

Assessment:

Theoretical & Practical Exercises when on site.

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Reg 1992

This Regulation States That every Employer shall ensure That Suitable PPE is Provided To His Employees.

Collective protection or preventative measures are prefered, where these solutions are not available or not practical Fall restraint systems are the next best thing and Fall Arrest as a last resort.

Legislation

Under domestic law (the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their employees and others. This responsibility is reinforced by regulations.

• The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 
  Apply where the assessment identifies risks of serious injury from work in confined spaces.

These regulations contain the following key duties:

• avoid entry to confined spaces, e.g. by doing the work from the outside;
• if entry to a confined space is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work; and
• put in place adequate emergency arrangements before the work start

• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 
  Require employers and self-employed people to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety. For work in confined spaces this means identifying the hazards present, assessing the risks and determining what precautions to take.

More information about Safety harnesses HERE

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Under The Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, those who break health and safety laws are liable for recovery of HSE’s related costs, including inspection, investigation and taking enforcement action.

The Fee for Intervention hourly rate will be £124 for 2012/13 however many businesses that comply with their legal obligations will continue to pay nothing.

HSE’s inspectors inspect work activities and investigate incidents and complaints. If, when visiting a business, they see material breaches of the law, the business or organisation will have to pay a fee. The fee is based on the amount of time that the inspector has had to spend identifying the material breach, helping businesses to put it right, investigating and taking enforcement action.

“The HSE Fee for Intervention” applies to duty holders where HSE is the enforcing authority. This will include employers, self-employed people who put others (including their employees or members of the public) at risk, and some individuals acting in a capacity other than as an employee, eg partners.

It includes:

■ public and limited companies;
■ general, limited and limited liability partnerships; and
■ Crown and public bodies.

The HSE will review how the HSE Fee for Intervention (FFI) is working after the first twelve months of operation, and within three years of it coming into effect. The review reports will be published on this website.

Here is all the information a dutyholder needs to understand the new scheme. Click Here

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The case is being highlighted by CITB-ConstructionSkills who warned any other fraudsters could expect to feel the full force of the law.

Gurpreet Singh and Parampreet Singh were both convicted last week after pleading guilty at Luton Crown Court.

They had been caught by staff at CITB-ConstructionSkills’ test centre in Luton, Bedfordshire, and were sentenced to nine months each.

CITB-ConstructionSkills’ product delivery manager Chris Little, said that staff discovered the fraud, known as proxy testing, after realising the men had taken multiple tests using several other workers’ identification passes which bore their own photographs.

He said: “Both men were being paid to take the test by other candidates, and it soon became clear to us that the same men were taking the test for other people each time.

CITB-ConstructionSkills Chief Executive Mark Farrar condemned the practice.

He said: “I’m glad the vigilance of CITB-ConstructionSkills staff caught and put a stop to this illegal activity.We support the industry by continually investigating test fraud, and we take it very seriously indeed.

“Proxy testing is self-defeating because it both endangers the lives of the people who solicit it and their colleagues on construction sites.

“Those who are found to be proxy testing will be reported to the police and could face prosecution.”

Both men are foreign nationals and will be deported once they have served their sentences.

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Business Advice Open Days are the largest cross government business support road-shows of their kind, dedicated to providing free information and support to your business.

What support is available?

• full team of experts at each event
• advice and support – health and safety, starting a new business, business growth…
• help to understand and meet legal requirements
• enhance your business – funding, marketing and new technology.

Events near you

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David Cameron yesterday unveiled plans to cut red tape and prevent ambulance-chasing lawyers from cashing in on personal injury claims.

And he launched an attack on the ‘chancers’ who try to ‘leech’ off companies by seeking compensation for minor accidents.Prime Minister today vowed to make 2012 the year when ‘we kill off the health and safety culture for good’.

In future, the maximum amount lawyers can pocket from health and safety cases will be capped, with some getting as little as £400 for a single case.

Ministers want to stamp out the gravy train which allows some legal firms to pocket fees of £50,000 or more for fighting minor personal injury claims that pay claimants just a few hundred pounds.

These cases cost businesses billions each year in legal fees and hugely expensive insurance policies to protect themselves from vexatious claims.

Many arrange settlements with employees rather than risk the punitive legal fees that losing a case would bring.

Mr Cameron made the announcement in his first public appearance of the year, designed to show that the Government is making economic growth its priority.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to tackle legal fees in ‘no win, no fee’ cases because health and safety legislation has become an ‘albatross around the neck of British businesses’.

‘Building our economy up to strength requires a real pioneering, risk-taking spirit – and today we are smothering it in bubble wrap and red tape,’ he warned.

‘This must stop. So one of the Coalition’s New Year resolutions is this: kill off the health and safety culture for good. Our plans will deter the speculative health and safety chancers and those who leech off good businesses.

‘So what we’re going to be doing is to say that for claims up to £25,000 we’re going to cap the fees that lawyers can earn from those claims.

‘I think that will take a lot of the fear out of the health and safety monster and make sure that businesses feel they can get on and plan and invest and grow without feeling they’ll be strangled by red tape and health and safety regulation, which is very, very important for the future of our economy.’

An existing fixed costs scheme in England and Wales, which limits lawyers’ fees from personal injury claims worth under £10,000 resulting from road traffic accidents, will be extended to cover claims against employers. It will also be expanded to cover cases where the compensation payout is up to £25,000.

The current scheme caps legal costs at a fixed amount dependent on the number of stages needed to settle the case. If a defendant admits liability, the winning claimant’s lawyer can charge no more than £400 to handle the case.

Under the plans, Mr Cameron will also meet the bosses of Britain’s leading insurance companies at a Downing Street summit next month to ensure that businesses are not paying too much for cover that goes far beyond what is required by law.

The Government has already announced plans to change the health and safety law on strict liability for civil claims so that businesses are no longer automatically at fault if something goes wrong.

Ministers believe firms are too often held responsible even if they have done everything they can to prevent an accident. Speaking in Maidenhead, Berkshire, the Prime Minister added: ‘The key thing about health and safety is it’s not just the laws and rules and regulations, it’s also the culture of fear that many businesses have about health and safety.’

But Richard Jones, head of policy and public affairs at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said: ‘Labelling workplace health and safety as a monster is appalling and unhelpful, as the reason our legislative system exists is to prevent death, injury or illness at work.

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He was stunned to be told the fighter had been given a facelift with paint containing tiny traces of radioactive radium and had no ‘proper seat’.

Mr Carter said: ‘You couldn’t make it up. I used to fly those things every day fighting the Germans.

‘Now that really was a health and safety concern, let me tell you!’

The former pilot was invited to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent to look at the type of Spitfire in which he flew top secret missions in Russia.

He is the last surviving member of a clandestine group known as Force Benedict, which protected the crucial port of Murmansk following the invasion by Nazi Germany in 1941.

‘I had to laugh to think I couldn’t sit in a stationary Spitfire in case I got hurt,’ said the veteran from Worcester.

‘I just wish the Luftwaffe had been so caring.’

A spokesman for Stoke council said without a seat and with the paint used, it was ‘thought best’ to stop Mr Carter from climbing in because of his age.

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According to the latest statistics, there were 60 major injuries in the county during 2010/11 compared with 55 in 2009/10.

Another 125 workers suffered an injury or ill health which required them to take at least three days off work in 2010/11 compared to 133 in the previous year.

Nick O’Connor, principal inspector for the HSE in Wales, said: “These 60 workers in Pembrokeshire have had their lives changed forever by a major injury.

“These statistics highlight why we need good health and safety in British workplaces.

Employers need to spend their time tackling the real dangers that workers face and stop worrying about trivial risks or doing pointless paperwork.

“It’s important to remember that we still have one of the lowest rates of workplace deaths in Europe, but one death is still one too many.

“I would urge businesses to focus on helping to cut the number of deaths in 2012.”

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