CONTENTS
- Training
- Company news
- HSE news
- Industry news
- General news
- Recent prosecutions
TRAINING
UKATA ASBESTOS COURSES
The HSE’s asbestos campaign continues unabated, so don’t get caught out!! An absolute minimum of Asbestos Awareness (Category A) training is essential for all types of building contractors or managers, and attendance of a UKATA course is the industry ‘gold standard’.
- UKATA Cat A Asbestos Awareness
Duration: 8.30am – 10.30am
Date: 14 February 2025 (Friday)
Cost: £60 + VAT per person
In addition, a reminder that nobody should be disturbing ‘non-licensed’ asbestos without appropriate training. Therefore, Category B training for non-licensed work is essential for all contractors who need to, or may possibly need in future to, carry out this type of work.
Delegates must have a UKATA Cat A certificate dated within the last 6 months in order to attend Cat B. Because of this stipulation, we are running the UKATA Cat A course beforehand on the same day and, if your candidates need to complete both A & B on the same day, there is a discounted rate of £160pp for both courses.
- UKATA Cat B Non-Licensed Work with Asbestos
Duration: 10.45am – 4pm
Date: 14 February 2025 (Friday)
Cost: £120 + VAT per person
CITB COURSES
Please contact Vicki (as above) to book places on all the planned courses below. When booking courses, all necessary criteria and restrictions will be personally communicated, both directly at the time of booking and again through joining instructions, ahead of all planned courses. It is vital that these are understood and relevant information clearly passed to candidates. And do please be sure to inform us ahead of the course date of any candidate who may require assistance in any way, especially with reading or writing; we need advance notice to be able to provide this help.
It must be noted that CITB attendance rules are very strict; they must be understood and are reiterated here:
- CITB specifies that candidates must be available to attend each session within the course; failure to do so may require a repeat course.
- Attendance is absolutely vital once booked; because of CITB rules, we may be forced to cancel a course on that morning if some candidates fail to take part, to the detriment of all candidates.
- Basic refreshments will be available; however, no lunch is provided and candidates should make their own provision (bring their own food, or there are shops nearby and a small café on site).
Candidates must arrive by 8.15*am for registration; all courses start at 8.30am and finish at around 4.30pm.
* Please reiterate to all candidates the absolute need to make their way up to the WHS offices and log their vehicle registration accurately immediately upon arrival in the car park to avoid being charged for parking.
CITB COURSE DETAILS
- CITB Asbestos Awareness
Duration: Half-day
Date: 4 March 2025 (Tuesday)
Cost: £60 + VAT per person
- Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS)
Duration: 5 days; 1 day per week
Dates:
20, 27 February & 6, 13, 20 March 2025 (Thursdays)
14, 21, 28 May & 4, 11 June 2025 (Thursdays)
9, 16, 23, 30 July & 6 August 2025 (Wednesdays)
Cost: £495 + VAT per person
- Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS) Refresher
Duration: 2 days
Dates:
10 & 11 February 2025 (Monday & Tuesday)
7 & 8 April 2025 (Monday & Tuesday)
23 & 24 June 2025 (Monday & Tuesday)
Cost: £285 + VAT per person (10% discount when booking 2 or more people on all courses)
- Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme (SSSTS)
Duration: 2 days
Dates:
25 & 26 March 2025 (Tuesday & Wednesday)
6 & 7 May 2025 (Tuesday & Wednesday)
2 & 3 July 2025 (Wednesday & Thursday)
Cost: £250 + VAT per person (10% discount when booking 2 or more people on all courses)
- Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme (SSSTS) Refresher
Duration: 1 day
Dates:
3 February 2025 (Monday)
29 April 2025 (Tuesday)
16 June 2025 (Monday)
Cost: £170 + VAT per person (10% discount when booking 2 or more people on all courses)
- CITB 1-Day Health & Safety Awareness
Duration: 1 day
Dates:
17 March 2025 (Monday)
12 May 2025 (Monday)
Cost: £145 + VAT per person (10% discount when booking 2 or more people on all courses)
OTHER COURSES
CDM 2015
Covering the legal duties of all parties – even more important to understand now that the Building Safety Act has put additional pressures on all parties involved in construction, from client to contractors
Duration: Half-day
Date: 31 April 2025 (Wednesday)
Cost: £60 + VAT per person
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:
24 February 2025 (Monday) – Limited space
31 March 2025 (Monday)
28 April 2025 (Monday)
19 May 2025 (Monday)
25 June 2025 (Wednesday)
21 July 2025 (Monday)
20 August 2025 (Wednesday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID
1-day FAA Award in First Aid for Mental Health (Level 2 RQF)
Dates: 13 February 2025 (Thursday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
IOSH MANAGING SAFELY
3-day IOSH Managing Safely course
Dates: 1, 2 & 3 April 2025 (Tuesday – Thursday)
Cost: £450 + VAT per person
ONLINE COURSES
Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd (WHS) provides an extensive suite of fully certificated online courses, priced at a very reasonable £25 + VAT per course, to help with staff training when time is short. All that candidates need is access to a computer or laptop.
We would always recommend face-to-face training to help your workforce get the most out of course content, but these online courses offer a temporary solution when time is short or turnover is high; all courses take only 30-40 minutes to complete and can, of course, be completed at home as well as at work. Full details of all available online courses and booking facilities for this e-learning platform can be found on our website: www.wenlockhealthandsafety.co.uk
SHORT COURSES
And, in addition to the programmed courses we have on offer over the next few months, don’t forget that WHS also provides a multitude of other short courses (both classroom and on-site based) to suit your needs. Feel free to contact Vicki Brown at the WHS office on 01952 885885, or via email on enquiries@wenlockhs.co.uk or vicki@wenlockhs.co.uk , to discuss your particular needs.
COMPANY NEWS
ANNUAL SAFETY AWARDS 2024
We had great pleasure to announce in the last newsletter of 2024 the winners of the Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd Annual Safety Awards. We do this every year to recognise those WHS clients who have gone above and beyond normal expectations to establish exemplary health & safety systems and cultures in order to protect their workforce, and the very worthy winners of the 2024 Awards are seen below receiving their certificates.
Joe Gray, Contracts Manager, receiving the WHS Award for Continual Improvement on behalf of Strip Out Solutions Ltd from WHS Health & Safety Consultant, Mark Roberts.
Joe makes the following comments about the company’s safety culture:
“At Strip Out Solutions, safety is more than a priority – it’s a core value that shapes everything we do. This recognition reflects the hard work, dedication and vigilance of our entire team, who consistently strive to uphold the highest standards.”
Tony Challinor, Senior Technical Engineer, receiving the WHS Award for Commitment to Health & Safety on behalf of Landia UK Ltd for Commitment to Health & Safety. Tony makes very valid points about company safety:
“I’m often asked the question ‘How are our accident / incident statistics consistently so low?’. The simple answer is experience, coupled with regular training and periodic 3rd party assessments to ensure that we remain on the right track… Having a safety plan that clearly defines the route of responsibility, from a site survey at the start of a project to a fully commissioned system, ensures that we can consider ALL risks that are posed on a site…The result is a happy customer and a satisfied installation team that returns to base with no injuries or incidents. Health and Safety is never one person’s responsibility. It is a team effort, which ultimately reflects on our accident statistics.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! Both Strip Out Solutions and Landia are excellent examples of how health & safety should be viewed, and the results speak for themselves.
HSE NEWS
THE HSE TURNS 50!
The HSE was created by the ground-breaking Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was launched on1 January 1975. The idea behind it was to prevent accidents and fatalities before they occur, rather than merely prosecuting the culprits after the event – as most countries still do.
It is worth noting that, when the Act came into being in 1974, 651 people lost their lives whilst at work and countless were maimed, injured or harmed as a result of their working environment. As the statistics below show, we have come a long way in reaching the Act and the HSE’s objectives; last year a total of 138 were killed at work, a huge reduction over the decades, and the number has actually been lower than that in recent years.
Most businesses resent the HSE (why? something to hide?) but it is there to help ensure our safety while at work – we all have the right to go home safely at night.
FATALITY AND HARM STATISTICS 2023/24
Towards the end of 2024, the HSE published their annual report on work related health & safety figures: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/
And the latest poster is available from the HSE’s website, priced at £11.44 including VAT.
In brief:
- 138 workers were killed in work-related accidents
- 600,000 were injured
- 33.7 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and injury
- 1.7 million workers suffering from work-related illness, including 543,000 with musculoskeletal disorders and 776,000 with stress or depression
- £21.6 billion estimated cost to the UK of injuries and ill-health
Industry-specific statistics are also reported; construction statistics make grim reading:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/assets/docs/construction.pdf
with 50% of all fatalities still being caused by work at height, 52% of workers suffering from musculoskeletal disorders and 18% from stress or depression.
As an industry, we can do better than that; help make 2025 the year of vastly improved conditions and statistics.
FOOTNOTE:
As our award winners have demonstrated, it can be done with a little commitment and effort. And here is an incredible example of just that very commitment to employee safety:
Scaffolding and safety systems supplier, TRAD UK, has recorded 1 million work hours without any lost time injuries across its 6 depots and site operations. To quote TRAD UK’s Head of Technical and Product Support, Alan Slater, “This isn’t just about hitting a number – it’s about a whole new mindset. We’ve made safety everyone’s business, from the top down.”
Take note – and, as our awards winners clearly demonstrate, it can be done!
ASBESTOS
The HSE is continuing its hard-hitting campaign to make sure that (a) everyone is aware of the dangers, including householders who may commission work from tradespeople, and (b) those tradespeople carry out their legal duties to prevent asbestos disturbance for the wellbeing of both themselves and those commissioning the work.
It is a sad fact that, despite legislation having been in place for over 20 years, the majority of householders are still unaware of the potential dangers of asbestos and/or are assured by incompetent builders or tradespeople that everything is safe to continue without the legally required survey work being carried out.
To hammer home the message to both contractors and those commissioning work (commercial and domestic), the HSE has been working alongside a number of industry bodies for a number of years. For example, Trustmark which has produced a Trustmark app to help householders to navigate their responsibilities and choose a reputable contractor: https://www.trustmark.org.uk/homeowner/discover/home-improvement-app
and Work Right which issues webinars, podcasts and a great deal of freely downloadable resources:
https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/campaigns/asbestos-your-duty-campaign-assets/
including a heart-wrenching personal story of loss shared by Danny Williamson, a member of HSE’s digital team, who experienced 3 members of his family dying from mesothelioma:
Blog: a family’s tragic history with asbestos
Just because the use of asbestos was banned so long ago, the problem has not gone away; asbestos-containing materials are still endemic throughout pre-2000 structures. Please, never be tempted to cut corners for the sake of keeping prices low or expediting the work in order to win the job; it simply isn’t worth the gamble in terms of health risk and the risk of being prosecuted.
LEGIONELLA
The HSE has issued a stark reminder about employers’ legal responsibilities to determine whether there is a risk of legionella in their workplaces (both company premises and on site, take note) and to take appropriate steps to control and risk.
A recent prosecution demonstrates the severity of both the risk and the consequences of failing to undertake the legal duties:
Facilities management company, Amey Community Ltd, was fined £600,000 plus over £15,000 in costs after a prisoner at HMP Lincoln died from contracting legionella in 2017. Water samples taken from both the prisoner’s cell and the shower block tested positive for legionella. The company had failed to act on a risk assessment carried out in 2016, put in place a formal plan for legionella prevention, ensure appropriate water temperatures were maintained and monitored; subsequently, the bacteria spread rapidly, leading to the death of the prisoner.
- ALL employers are under a legal obligation to assess the risk of the legionella forming within their water-based systems which could, as this case demonstrates, include showers and other seemingly innocuous systems.
- ALL designers and installers of such water-based systems are under a legal obligation to design out the risk where at all possible and provide appropriate risk-reduction information where it isn’t.
- ALL developers and principal contractors are under a legal obligation to include site conditions in their risk assessment with particular reference to water systems standing unused ahead of project or dwelling completion.
A wealth of advice and guidance is available on the HSE’s website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires
and within the information issued to all WHS clients. In most cases, expert advice will be required to ensure a competent and meaningful risk assessment and control regime; WHS has access to such specialist advice so please do feel free to call us for advice.
DUSTS
The HSE is continuing its campaign targeting exposure to dusts and fumes; refer to an example prosecution in the last section of this newsletter where both the company and its director were prosecuted.
We have highlighted before the issue of routing stone worktops during their installation; ideally, this shaping of this type of worktop (and any other producing dusts) should be carried out off-site or, failing that, under properly controlled safe systems of work to prevent inhalation.
To help with the risk assessment and establishment of appropriate safe systems, the HSE has issued advice on its website for installers, managers and supervisors involved in the installation of stone worktops:
https://press.hse.gov.uk/2025/01/07/new-simplified-advice-for-installers-of-stone-worktops/
which includes a new detailed flow-chart to lead those involved through the process start to finish:
https://workright.campaign.gov.uk/campaigns/stoneworking/
INDUSTRY NEWS
IPAF GO DIGITAL
IPAF (the International Powered Access Federation) has introduced a new app, ePAL (available for both iPhones and android), aimed at powered access operators but available to all license / qualification holders.
It consists of a digital wallet to store and share individuals’ licenses and qualifications, including the PAL cards for mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs), mast climbing work platforms (MCWPs) and hoist operators. Competent Assessed Persons (CAPs), MEWPs for Managers and Site Assessment can all be added.
Note: An important reminder that the type of PAL card must reflect the type of equipment operated.
The app also contains various other very useful ‘tools’ to assist safe operating procedures, including digital logbooks, and operational advice and best practice.
FACE FIT TESTING
WHS would remind all employers whose employers are required to wear respiratory protection that it is a legal requirement to prove that the chosen masks actually work; they must form a tight seal around the face or dusts and fumes will seep in and the wearing of the mask will be totally pointless!
So two essential points to note (and we say this because WHS still finds these legally required issues are not being addressed by a large proportion of employers):
- ALL wearing of non-powered respiratory protection (half and full-face masks) requires face-fit testing to be carried out using the chosen mask on each individual. That type of chosen mask must be worn on each occasion by the individual tested; use of any alternative mask would require additional face-fit testing to ensure suitability and effectiveness.
- ALL wearers of this type of mask must be clean shaven during the test and must remain so whenever the mask is to be worn. It is not a ‘human right’ to sport a beard or ‘designer stubble’; it is a human right to go home safe at night so the effectiveness of the face mask* is essential!
* There may be a case for providing powered respirators in some circumstances (e.g. for powder-coating and other operations where fumes are unavoidable) but these are expensive and the additional cost would need to be justified by risk assessment – which, in general, unless a contractor is being extremely kind, would not include the wish by the individual to have a beard!
As you all know, WHS provides face-fit testing by prior arrangement either at our offices or (with certain provisos) on site; don’t risk falling foul of the law, book face-fit testing
FIRE PREVENTION ON SITE
WHS would remind all contractors that the Fire Protection Association’s guidance document ‘The Joint Code of Practice on the Protection from Fire of Construction Sites and Buildings Undergoing Renovation’, which was originally introduced in 1992 and is now on its 10th edition, is the industry recognised standard for fire prevention on construction sites and, as such, must be followed.
The Joint Code of Practice 10th Edition is free to download from:
https://www.thefpa.co.uk/advice-and-guidance
The WHS Health & Safety Manual, issued to all WHS clients, also contains a synopsis of the important points.
The Joint Code of Practice is an extremely important document because, as a recognised standard for the past 30+ years, any contractor failing to follow its recommendations might well find themselves uninsured if a fire or incident results. Therefore, WHS strongly recommends that the full document be downloaded and fully understood.
GENERAL NEWS
COSHH SAFETY
The Fire Service has issued a warning to all cleaners and cleaning services to remind them of the extreme dangers of mixing cleaning products or not being aware of the risk involved with their use. The Service is called to hundreds of emergencies each year resulting from misuse of cleaning chemicals and, often, fire fighters need to wear breathing apparatus in order to attend the incident – this sounds far-fetched but it’s true!
Serious incidents include the production of chlorine gas or, worst-case scenario, splattering and ‘explosion’ when chemicals are mixed (especially where bleach or bleach-based products are involved). And the majority of these incidents involve ordinary domestic cleaning products. Just because they can be easily bought from supermarkets, doesn’t mean they don’t present risks; obviously safety information is attached to all such products.
However, WHS would add to this a reminder that ALL employers who engage cleaners (whether a cleaning company or self-employed individuals) have a legal responsibility to ensure they are competent to do their job – and this MUST include adequate COSHH and risk assessments to ensure they are equipped with the essential knowledge of how to safely use, handle and store the products.
STRESS
As highlighted in the December 2024 newsletter, the HSE has issued a strong reminder that stress must be included in work-related risk assessments.
To assist with this, the HSE has issued various guidance documents:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg430.pdf
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wbk01.pdf
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/assets/docs/manage-mental-health.pdf
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/assets/docs/securing.pdf
And there are HSE templates on its website for stress risk assessment, plus examples:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/risk-assessment.htm
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/risk-assessment.htm
https://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/risk-assessment-template-and-examples.htm
These will be included in future health & safety packs to all WHS clients; in the meantime, make use of the web links to ensure that you cover your statutory duties to consider the well-being of your staff. The risk assessment template is a standard format, but the examples are particularly useful as to what to consider and how to manage the issues raised.
It is estimated (by the HSE) that last year, there were 776,000 cases of ill health caused by stress, depression or anxiety, each case meaning an average of 21 days off work. Whilst nobody is suggesting that all cases of stress (etc) are solely because of the working environment, it is the responsibility of all employers to try and recognise the symptoms, act sympathetically where stress is suspected or declared by the individual, and help by recommending appropriate courses of action and/or organisations where help can be found.
Note: The half-day Mental Health First-Aid course run on a regular basis by WHS (refer above for the next course date) enables attendees to both recognise signs of stress and assist the individual with practical and sympathetic means.
TACKLING ALCOHOL & DRUGS MISUSE IN THE WORKPLACE
Also as highlighted in the December 2024 newsletter, the HSE reminds all employers that the issue of alcohol and drugs misuse in the workplace must be viewed as a potentially serious risk issue and tackled accordingly. But how? This is a tricky one as there may be issues of underlying stress, addiction, or misinformation to consider.
The HSE advises the employers should develop a drugs and alcohol policy; step-by-step guidance can be found on: https://www.hse.gov.uk/alcoholdrugs/
However, WHS would remind our clients that we have access to expert HR advice and assistance should this issue raise its head in your workplace. Please do contact WHS sooner rather than later when it may be too late to deal with it appropriately; this is particularly important if a company wishes to go down the route of screening and testing, which can have legal implications.
RECENT PROSECUTIONS
Lifting operations
- Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd was fined £1.6 million plus costs of £23,194 after a worker was crushed to death when mast climber work platform sections fell on him. The sections were being lifted by a lorry-mounted crane when the lifting sling snapped.
The company had failed to provide a safe exclusion zone to protect pedestrians from falling items. It also failed to have a robust inspection and thorough examination system in place, resulting in out-of-test-date slings being used. A sober reminder to all contractors of the importance of the legally required inspections and examinations.
Plant safety
- FloPlast Ltd was fined £400,000 plus costs of £5,567 after a worker was seriously injured when he was struck by a fork-lift truck; he received a dislocated ankle and multiple fractures to his leg which required a metal plate to be fitted. There had been one-way systems in place but these were not documented, nor were they observed by drivers or pedestrians, and there was absolutely no system in place to monitor compliance; the result was that CCTV showed multiple fork-lifts driving in the same areas as pedestrians.
- BAM Nuttall Ltd was fined £800,000 plus a victim surcharge of £60,000 after a 23-year old agency worker was killed by a falling skip bale arm. The victim, who had only started work on the site a month earlier, was trying to chip away dried concrete from a skip when the bale arm fell across his chest. BAM had failed to recognise the risk and establish a safe system of work for the maintenance and cleaning of the skip.
- Partwell Special Steels Ltd was fined £80,000 plus £6,713 costs after a young worker was crushed beneath a large press and killed. The victim and his colleagues were attempting to move it across the floor with skates; however, as the machine was being lifted onto the skates, it became unbalanced, toppled and crushed him.
The company had failed to properly risk assess such an operation, nor to establish a safe system of work; it had also failed to train employees into the safe use of skates.
Work at height
(note the number of falls from height during installation of solar panels)
- H2O Renewables Ltd was fined £106,720 plus £4,995 costs and Green Projects Ltd fined £13,340 plus £1,600 costs after a worker fell 10 metres through a fragile skylight above an indoor skate park; he suffered serious life-changing injuries, including a collapsed lung and fractures to his lower vertebrae, pelvis, femur, ribs and wrist, although he was very lucky not have been killed.
H2O was the principal contractor on a project to fit solar panels to the roof and had appointed Green Projects as a sub-contractor. H2O were aware that fragile skylights were in very close proximity to where the solar panels would be fitted but only put warning tape and cones in place to ‘prevent’ falls through (as can be seen in the photo); unbelievable! Predictably, the worker had stepped back from his work onto a skylight, resulting in the skylight shattering and him falling through.
- EE Renewables Ltd was fined £120,000 plus costs of £4,716 after a worker broke his leg when he fell 4 metres during the alteration of solar panels on a domestic roof. Absolutely no fall prevention measures were in place (as can be seen in the photo)
Just because the work took place on a domestic property does not negate the (legal) requirement for proper fall prevention measures – and with work like this, that means full scaffolding, no matter what the cost to the householder!! If the householder won’t pay for scaffolding, don’t do the work – look what it cost the company to take the risk!
- Dodwell Farn Ltd was fined £133,000 plus £8,816 costs and a surcharge of £2,000 after a worker fell 10 metres through a barn roof, leaving him seriously injured. The victim had been fixing new panels to timbers but the existing panels were not strong enough to support his weight. The company had failed establish any sort of fall prevention measures, an all-too-common scenario in the field of agriculture.
Dusts
- Warmsworth Stone Ltd was fined £18,000 plus costs of £4,064 and its director, Simon Frith, fined £1,082 and £3,782 costs after repeatedly failing to protect workers from exposure to respirable silica dusts. The company produces carved stone masonry and had ignored improvement notices to maintain and carry out the legally required 14-month testing of LEV, control legionella and provide adequate welfare
Vibration
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council was fined £60,000 plus costs of £5,776 after continually exposing a worker to the effects of using vibrating tools on road repairs for more than 20 years. Health surveillance had been carried out in April 2019 but, despite recommendations to limit exposure, little action was taken until late 2019 when the HSE ordered the worker to stop using those tools. The worker had originally been diagnosed with hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) in 2005!
Do remember that these cases are just a snap-shot of all HSE prosecutions over recent months; check your compliance before it’s too late, and contact the WHS office urgently of you are concerned about any health & safety issues at all. Failing to do so may result in someone getting hurt or killed, and your company (or you) being held accountable.
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