April 2025 Newsletter – Industry

by | Mar 25, 2025 | Newsletters

CONTENTS

  • Training
  • HSE news
  • Industry news
  • General news
  • Recent prosecutions

TRAINING
(The boring but essential bit! Refer to later articles)

FIRST AID

1-day Emergency First-Aid at Work course dates are listed below; specific requirements and controls will be advised within the joining instructions.

Dates:

31 March 2025 (Monday)
4 April 2025 (Friday) NEW DATE
10 April 2025 (Thursday) NEW DATE Fully booked but a waiting list is operating
28 April 2025 (Monday)
19 May 2025 (Monday)
25 June 2025 (Wednesday)
21 July 2025 (Monday)
20 August 2025 (Wednesday)
29 September 2025 (Monday)

Cost: £85 + VAT per person

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID

1-day FAA Award in First Aid for Mental Health (Level 2 RQF)

Dates: 16 May 2025 (Friday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person

IOSH MANAGING SAFELY

3-day IOSH Managing Safely course

Dates: 15, 16 & 17 September 2025 (Monday – Wednesday)
Cost: £450 + VAT per person

ONLINE COURSES

Don’t forget we also have a range of online courses available for a wide variety of subjects from COSHH Awareness and Legionella Awareness to Equality and Diversity and Stress in the Workplace.

Take a look at the full range here – Buy online courses – Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd All online courses are around 30 minutes long, only cost £25 + VAT per course, and can be undertaken whenever you want.

These online courses are ideal for refresher training to keep up to date and supplement other courses, perfect for those people who may not physically do certain roles but need to know the subject and great for the smaller subjects like Office Safety which can be completed easily by all office-based staff.

All you need to do is pop any number of required courses in the basket and go through the checkout (without clicking off until it’s fully completed!), then you’ll see full instructions on how to create each staff member’s user area and how to allocate the relevant courses to them. You’ll be able to see progress on each person to check when courses are completed and you’ll also have full access to all certificates gained.

Call WHS or drop Becki a line on becki.shenton@wenlockhs.co.uk if you’re stuck or want further information.

HSE NEWS

HSE HEAVILY TARGETTING ASBESTOS MANAGEMENT

As we have highlighted so many times before in these newsletters, there is still an incredible lack of awareness surrounding the presence and risks associated with asbestos. The British Safety Council (BSC) describes this as ‘alarming’ and we have to agree. In a survey the BSC conducted late last year amongst tradespeople, 49% thought this was a problem from the past; 50% felt that it had become less of a concern over the years they had been in their trades and, of those, 26% admitted to not following the correct procedures to remove it.

However, and as usual, this only reflects the (appalling) situation within a limited section of the construction industry; but they are not the only ones who have generally failed to undertake their legal duties. As everyone reading this newsletter should know (contact WHS immediately if you don’t!), the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (and all previous versions) attribute responsibility to every party involved in the ownership, management and upkeep of all commercial and public-interfacing buildings in the country, including churches, local village halls, outward-bound premises, etc, etc, etc.

WHS has now seen a lot of evidence that the HSE really are heavily focusing an increased number of inspections on asbestos management right across the board, covering factories, local authorities and all types of business premises. They are being extremely thorough and requiring evidence of a proper asbestos management system (AMS) for each premises – and do bear in mind that this, in law, includes structures built after 2000 (relevant information is in your health & safety pack but, if you’re still not sure why this is the case, contact WHS immediately!)

Check right now whether you do actually have a proper AMS in place, before it’s too late. Do you have evidence of (as a minimum):

  • Competent and recent asbestos surveys for every part of the building/s; an absolute minimum of ‘management level’ surveys and higher levels where work has been or is required?
  • Systems to ensure any areas not yet surveyed are strictly controlled and will be properly surveyed before being disturbed?
  • Regular competent inspections of any asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) highlighted or suspected within those surveys?
  • Records of where asbestos removal has been carried out, who undertook the work and their qualifications, and the waste trail?
  • Appropriate regular training for individuals in charge of the AMS, and proof of appropriate information dissemination to both staff and any contractors or individuals who need to be warned of where to avoid and where it is safe to work?
  • Is it all presented in a coherent fashion, held readily available for those who need the information (internal or externally-engaged) and is there strict recording of who has read the AMS and their responsibility to abide by any written or implied restrictions?
  • And, where the building was constructed post-2000, all-encompassing evidence that this was indeed the case; the legal requirement for every commercial building (including tenanted properties) to have an up-to-date and properly managed AMS includes ALL buildings, even if built post-2000?

You can find out more about the HSE’s campaign on the HSE’s website, including reference to the BSC research, the legal duties ‘to manage’ incumbent on all parties, templates* for an AMS, and various resources and videos to assist.

* WHS has been issuing perfectly adequate and thorough templates for years when clients have requested assistance; please do contact WHS immediately if you would like copies and/or require assistance.

We say again, the HSE is now being extremely thorough with this latest campaign so, whether you’re a contractor or a business working out of owned or tenanted properties, you need to make sure you have properly undertaken your legal duties to manage asbestos, start to finish, before you’re targeted.

Postscript: It was pleasing to see that the issue of asbestos was finally raised in Parliament during March; the MP for South Shields, Emma Lewell-Buck, described how her grandfather had died from exposure to asbestos and requested that a register be established of all remaining deposits within the UK and a commitment to the phased removal. The response from the PM was fairly vague, but we applaud Mrs Lewell-Buck for asking that Parliament finally takes this issue seriously.

HSE HEAVILY TARGETTING COMPETENT HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGEMENT

WHS has also now seen increased evidence that the HSE is being extremely thorough with its inspections. During recent HSE inspections to WHS clients, inspectors have required full evidence of (amongst other things):

  • Health controls, particularly where there may be dusts and fumes; note that there is zero-tolerance on lack of health surveillance, ineffective LEV, lack of face-fit testing or management controls for RPE
  • Asbestos management, training and controls; evidence of asbestos licensing or appropriate qualifications for removal (as above)
  • Management and supervisory qualifications and experience both business-wide and for specific types of work
  • Adequate risk, COSHH, vibration, noise and manual handling assessments, both site-wide and for specific types of work
  • Competency and control of contractors
  • LOLER and PUWER certification (see article below)
  • And much more!

So again, be warned, check all systems legally required or subject to established best practice are in place and working before it’s too late – and contact WHS urgently if you need assistance.

Postscript: It was pleasing to receive very positive feedback from a WHS client (a developer/contractor) after the HSE had very recently given the company a clean bill of health following an extremely in-depth site inspection. The result reflected how seriously the company had taken health & safety, how readily they work alongside WHS and how following the law (and our systems and advice) pays huge dividends in avoiding both accidents and HSE enforcement. It can be done!

HSE HEAVILY TARGETTING HEALTH SURVEILLANCE

As above, WHS has seen a massive increase in HSE presence throughout both construction and general industry (often resulting in enforcement or prosecution). On 27 February 2025, WHS head office issued a specific email to all clients to highlight the HSE concentration related to health surveillance; attached to the email was a new suite of suggested health surveillance questionnaires aimed at ensuring our clients have the tools to ascertain both the need for, and the depth required, for health surveillance to accommodate legal requirements. The suite of questionnaires will also now be included on your health & safety management systems packs at each annual renewal.

The content of the email was essential reading and so, to ensure that no clients can say they didn’t receive it or it had been deleted without reading it, we reproduce the main bulk of the contents here.

Where there’s exposure to noise, vibration, dust, fumes, chemicals, etc. during work activities, questionnaires should be completed by employees on a regular basis (risk based) in order to keep an eye on whether the exposure is having any effect on them and their health. If any answers raise concerns, or change from the last completed questionnaire, it’s then recommended that advice is sought from an occupational health specialist in order to check whether activities need to change or additional controls/support should be implemented. If operations then change for the individual, we recommend a Personal Risk Assessment is completed in order to ensure risks have been assessed to that particular individual based on the findings and additional control measures needed.

All of the questionnaires start with a consent form which should be completed for each and again upon reissue next time round, as this ensures employees are providing consent to take any necessary next step to look after their health. If you experience resistance, this may become an HR issue.

Every completed copy should be kept confidentially in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), along with any further enquiries/records. The HSE recommend keeping records for 40 years or as long as possible due to the length of time certain conditions can take to occur. Where no issues are raised during these periodic checks, you will then have the evidence of monitoring in order to act accordingly where necessary. We would also recommend that health monitoring questionnaires are completed upon exit from the Company (regardless of how long ago the last was completed).

These are only suggested templates, and we recommend that questions are only added not taken away, and additional information to ensure they run in line with your company HR procedures etc is included.

Don’t forget, where employees work with asbestos or lead, these hold their own separate Regulations which stipulate how health monitoring/surveillance is approached, for example, any UKATA Cat B trained personnel must undergo medical surveillance.

There is a wealth of additional advice and guidance on the HSE website, HSE: Information about health and safety at work, all of which is completely free to access and download. As an example, to assist those industries who are subject to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) exposure, the HSE has updated its guidance (G404): G – COSHH essentials: general guidance – HSE. Construction and stone masonry are obviously continually subjected to the presence of RCS, but so are many other industries where the seriousness of the issue may not be fully appreciated – such as possibly kitchen worktop fabrication and installation (refer to previous newsletters).

And don’t forget other health issues such as noise, vibration and manual handling. The HSE recently renewed its guidance (Vibration – HSE) and issued the following warning about properly assessing and controlling vibration:

A council was recently fined £60,000 for exposing workers to the risks arising from the use of vibrating tools. HSE’s investigation found that:

    • the system of health surveillance in place was inadequate
    • data used to calculate the vibration exposure to workers grossly underestimated the vibration magnitude of the tools in use

If you have any questions or require further assistance, please do feel free to contact WHS before it’s too late!

LIFTING OPERATIONS

The HSE has issued a salutary reminder that all businesses involved in any type of heavy lifting (including construction, factories, materials delivery, warehousing, etc, etc) MUST abide by the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998; they MUST carry out the mandatory inspections on ALL equipment involved (including all chains, straps, hooks, lifting points, etc) and MUST risk assess and formulate a safe system of work for ALL tasks and operations.

The recent prosecution of steel company, Midland Steel Traders Ltd, saw the company fined £100,000 for failing to establish as safe system of work for using a fork-lift and gantry to move an excavator bucket; the accident resulted in severe crushing injuries to an employee and the moment this happened can be seen on video on the HSE website: CCTV captures moment welder crushed at Sunderland shipyard – HSE Media Centre

All the necessary information about LOLER and the legal requirements is in your health & safety management pack (and on the HSE website) but, if you have any queries or require any assistance at all, please do not hesitate to contact WHS.

LONE WORKING

We discussed the issue of lone working in the December 2024 issue of our newsletter, and highlighted the fact the issue is not widely recognised but is common across many industries – the mere fact that an employee might travel by him or herself from the office to meet a new client or to a vacant property, very often entails ‘lone working’ and any such scenarios must be properly assessed (including a personal risk assessment where employees have known health or vulnerability conditions) and suitable controls established. Remember Suzy Lamplugh (Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh – Wikipedia).

As always, the HSE has a wealth of information and guidance on its website – including document indg73 ‘Protecting lone workers; how to manage the risks of working alone’, free to download from:
Protecting lone workers

Don’t forget also that WHS can provide tailor-made training for your lone workers and management to ensure that relevant scenarios are properly recognised, assessed and controls. Don’t overlook this issue; train management and employees to recognise and control the particular risks they might face.

AGENCY or TEMPORARY WORKERS

Another vulnerable group of workers is, according to research, agency or temporary workers. The use of this type of labour has become increasingly prevalent over recent decades but these workers are often given little or no induction, training or supervision and, therefore, can suffer a disproportionate number of accidents (or worse).

ALL employees engaged, in whatever form, are the responsibility of the employing business, and agency or temporary workers are no exception. ALL of them are entitled to an appropriate level of induction, training and supervision to ensure their safety. To assist businesses in the management of this type of workforce, the HSE provides valuable advice and guidance on:
Your health and safety as a gig economy, agency or temporary worker – HSE

INDUSTRY NEWS

IMPORTANT – MOTOR VEHICLE REPAIR GUIDANCE

The HSE has produced guidance for those working in motor vehicle repair to help with safely storing and handling airbags and seat belt pre-tensioners. If these items are not handled correctly, there is a real risk of injury or (believe it or not) poisoning.

Go to: Storing and handling airbags and seat belt pretensioners safely for in-depth information covering licensing, safe storage, safe handling and requirements for supply.

GENERAL NEWS

IMPORTANT – FOAM EXTINGUISHERS TO BE PHASED OUT

Do note that Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire extinguishers are completely banned as of July 2025. They have been phased out since 2020 but, as from 4 July 2025, their use is no longer allowed and they must be disposed of via a properly accredited company.

AFFF foam extinguishers have been standard issue for fighting Class A (flammable solids) and Class B (flammable liquids) fires for decades. However, they contain ‘forever chemicals’ which do not break down easily, can quickly dissolve in water and are, therefore, persistently harmful to the environment. A build-up of these chemicals can also cause serious health issues to humans and animals.

Alternative extinguishers are as follows:

For Class A Fires (fires that involves common combustible materials like wood, paper, cloth, and some plastics):

  • Water Extinguishers: effective for most common fires involving solid combustibles
  • Water Mist Extinguishers: versatile and environmentally friendly, suitable for Class A, B, C fires, and fires involving electrical equipment
  • Wet Chemical Extinguishers: ideal for fires involving cooking oils and fats
  • Dry Powder Extinguishers: suitable for a variety of fire types, although indoor use requires a specific health and safety assessment

For Class B Fires (fires that involves flammable liquids or gases, such as fuels, alcohol and solvent-based substances, flammable gases and lithium-ion batteries):

  • Fluorine-Free Firefighting Foam (F3): an environmentally friendly alternative that forms a protective layer over flammable liquids and suppressing the fire
  • Dry Chemical Agents: they include agents that interrupt the chemical reaction of the fire and smother the flames
  • Water Mist Extinguishers: suitable for multiple fire types, including those involving flammable liquids and electrical equipment, offering a non-toxic and easy-to-clean solution

EMPLOYEE HARASSMENT

In the December 2024 issue of this newsletter, we drew attention to the implied requirement under the Equality Act 2010 for every business to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment of all types in the workplace (i.e. a ‘preventative duty’). The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) monitors human rights, protecting equality across age, disability, sex, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment, and it recommends that each business should include a section on workplace harassment in its HR Policy. WHS can assist with this via our external HR specialist, Kay Heald; please do contact WHS for assistance if you need it.

However, it is worth pointing out here that harassment may well become a safety issue in certain circumstances, e.g. when an employee has to work within rough or antisocial neighbourhoods, or is sent to countries with prejudiced attitudes. In such circumstances, a full safety risk assessment must be carried out and appropriate mitigation measures and controls established. Also, in such cases, reference to how the employer intends to manage the issues must be covered in the Health & Safety Policy.

These two issues are completely separate and must be treated as such. Harassment within the workplace must be covered by HR and enforced; the potential for harassment when working eternally must be covered by safety risk assessment and properly managed.

RECENT PROSECUTIONS

Work at height

  • AIM Access Solutions Ltd was fined £30,000 plus £5,041 for its failure to safely assemble tower scaffolding. No ladder had been used for access but, instead, workers were climbing up the rungs of the tower! This, in the opinion of the HSE, resulted in the death of a worker, the report of which had prompted the investigation.
  • Self-employed roofer, Daniel Hooper, was given a 16-week suspended sentence and ordered to pay costs of £10,875 after a worker fell 7.6 metres from scaffolding and sustained serious injuries. The victim was carrying heavy slates down a ladder when he fell.

The Work at Height Regulations and HSE guidance is clear – ladders should only be used as access and certain short low-risk tasks, all of which afford the worker 3 points of contact at all time. The handling of bulky or heavy materials or equipment require additional safe systems to be established, such as the use of pulley or conveyor systems.

As an aside, WHS would also question the angle of that ladder!

Equipment safety

  • West Fraser (Europe) Ltd was fined well over £1 million for two separate incidents resulting in serious injuries and six breaches of health & safety law. The first involved a worker’s leg becoming entangled in moving parts in a storage bunker and resulted in a fine of £28,000; the company had failed to prevent uncontrolled access. The second involved a scaffolder falling 4 metres from a rusty plate on a rooftop gantry and resulted in a fine of £1,040,000; there had been no maintenance schedule or inspection regime in place.

The company had been fined over £2 million in 2022 following a fatality but had clearly not learnt a lesson!

  • Sundorne Products (Llanidloes) Ltd was fined £100,000 plus costs of £10,077 for failing to prevent uncontrolled access to compactors at its household waste site. Luckily, the failings had been identified before any member of the public or employee was hurt; any such accident would have been catastrophic!
  • Farm partnership, W Hesketh & Sons, was fined £80,000 plus costs of £8,605 after a farmhand was killed by an exploding tyre; the sudden catastrophic release of compressed air caused the wheel rim to be propelled into the victim, resulting in traumatic (and ultimately fatal) head injuries. The HSE found a lack of maintenance to be the root cause, but a failure to recognise and control the risks was also relevant.

Important footnote:
Inflating heavy duty tyres that are common throughout agriculture and construction is a risky operation; it MUST be risk assessed and a safe system of work MUST be established. To those WHS clients who may have reason to carry out tyre changing; there is a generic risk assessment in your health & safety management pack, please make sure this is read and a specific risk assessment carried out with a view to establishing a proper safe system of work.

Materials handling

  • Bespoke Stone Ltd was fined £6,600 plus costs of £4,875 after two workers were struck by falling stone slabs and sustained multiple serious bone injuries; they had been preparing to lift one of three slabs onto a saw bench when all three fell on them. The handling and storage systems were found to be inadequate and did not act to restrain the materials. The incident (and the failure to protect the workers) can be clearly seen on the video released by the HSE: Manufacturing firm fined after workers struck by stone slabs – HSE Media Centre

Excavations

  • Greenlife Property Developments Ltd was fines £40,000 plus costs of £5,813 after failing to comply with a prohibition notice and two improvements notices. The main focus of the of the enforcement had been an extremely dangerous 2.5 metre excavation within the entire back garden of a house. There had been no attempt to prevent the collapse of the excavation, nor secure the working area against unauthorised access. When the HSE returned they found work continuing with no improvement, no risk assessment and no access to sound health & safety advice and guidance to help the company comply.

WHS is working for you; help us to help you.
Our aim is to keep people safe and to keep your company working.
To contact WHS, ring: 01952-885885