Wenlock Health & Safety Celebrates its 20th anniversary!
COMPANY NEWS
We are delighted, and very proud, to be celebrating Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd’s 20th anniversary this month. From our very humble beginnings (Jackie alone, working from home) we soon blossomed into a very well-respected health & safety consultancy with an enviable reputation. Over the years, we have assisted well over 900 businesses, with over 200 currently being annually subscribed.
We extend sincere thanks to all of our customers, particularly for those of you who have remained with us from the early days. We have successfully ridden some challenging times during the past 20 years, such as the economic ‘crash’ of 2008-9 and more recently the pandemic, and we are now looking forward very much to serving our current and future customers for the next 20 years (and hopefully longer!).
TRAINING
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, particularly for the First Aid and CITB courses, relevant information is clearly passed to candidates. Please reiterate to all candidates the absolute need to make their way up to the WHS offices and log in immediately upon arrival to avoid being charged for parking.
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.
Please contact Vicki at Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd (WHS) on 01952 885885 or enquiries@wenlockhs.co.uk or vicki@wenlockhs.co.uk to book places.
In addition to those below, please enquire about other courses available, both classroom and non-classroom based; the full range is also detailed on our website: https://wenlockhealthandsafety.co.uk/
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID
1-day FAA Award in First Aid for Mental Health (Level 2 RQF) providing the knowledge to recognise a range of mental health conditions, start a supportive conversation and assist to seek professional help.
Date: 21 June 2022 (Tuesday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
IOSH MANAGING SAFELY
- Full IOSH Managing Safely course
Duration: 3 consecutive days
Dates: 9, 10 & 11 May 2022 (Monday – Wednesday)
Cost: £395 + VAT per person
- IOSH Managing Safely Refresher
Duration: 1 day
Date: 28 April 2022 (Thursday)
Cost: £165 + VAT per person
FIRST AID
1-day Emergency First-Aid at Work course dates are listed below; Covid-specific controls will still apply for the moment and will be advised within the joining instructions. Demand is always high, so book places as soon as possible to avoid disappointment:
Dates:
- 24 March 2022 (Thursday) – fully booked
- 27 April 2022 (Wednesday)
- 26 May 2022 (Thursday)
- 27 June 2022 (Monday)
- 26 July 2022 (Tuesday)
- 24 August 2022 (Wednesday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
HSE NEWS
SAFETY ALERT – MVR SCISSOR-LIFT
The HSE has issued a safety alert concerning faults found on a specific type of MVR-workshop scissor-lift. The manufacturer of the Saturnus EV 40, 45 & 50 Scissor Lift (manufactured 2014-2018) had identified a potential weakness in a weld and provided a kit to rectify the defect. However, whilst awaiting the installation of the kit, the lift fails at only 2.5t instead of the required 4.5t; the HSE has therefore issued a product warning that this type of scissor-lift be withdrawn from use.
For further information, refer to the following link (ignoring the other alerts relating to lighting and baby products!): https://bit.ly/3p3o2wk
HSE CAMPAIGN – WOODWORKING
The HSE has been highlighting the serious issue of exposure to wood dusts for many years now. More than 12,000 workers die each year from lung diseases, and exposure to wood dusts is a major cause. Consequently, from April 2022, the HSE will be ramping up its campaign and visiting woodworking businesses across the UK to ensure duty-holders know the risks, the legal requirements and undertake their responsibilities; inspectors promise that they will use enforcement when necessary.
As we have also been discussing this for many years now, all WHS customers who run woodworking workshops must, by now, be aware of what’s required, particularly the absolute need to maintain LEV and ensure dust-free air quality. If you are in doubt, please contact WHS urgently.
But to help, the HSE has updated their guidance: https://bit.ly/3p8sBFF
You can also find out what the HSE inspectors will be typically looking for: https://bit.ly/3LVBGeL
COVID-19
The HSE has stated that, although the Government has now ended legally enforceable Covid restrictions, all businesses and personnel should continue to practice a high standard of hygiene and cleaning of the workplace, and adequate ventilation. Only time will tell if we are out of the woods; therefore, it makes sense to continue with sensible precautions which, after all, should have now become the ‘new normal’ and will most certainly help should we be hit with yet another wave of Covid at some point.
In addition, the HSE reminds all businesses that the requirement for adequate risk assessments, sufficient to encompass ALL hazards potentially encountered in the workplace, is a strict legal requirement – and this will still include Covid.
Updated HSE guidance and advice can be found on: https://bit.ly/3pnCCix
INDUSTRY NEWS
RED DIESEL – CHANGES IN THE LAW
This is not a health & safety issue but we felt we had to make sure that WHS customers are aware of a major change to the law on the use of red diesel. From 1 April 2022, red diesel can ONLY be used for plant and vehicles in agriculture, horticulture, fish farming, forestry, rail and non-commercial heating.
The Government has stated the change is necessary to meet environmental and air-quality targets. Whatever your thoughts on this premise, it is going to have a massive effect in many industries, increasing fuel bills astronomically. White diesel has a fuel duty rate of 57.95 pence per litre (ppl); red diesel is entitled to a rebate of 46.81 ppl, the effective duty rate thus being 11.14 ppl. This rebate is being removed, meaning that the price paid ppl by businesses will rise by the 46.81 ppl – a massive increase in addition to the huge increases we’re all experiencing right now!
Be warned and be prepared; the Government has promised increased spot checks. Full information can be found on: https://bit.ly/3IkoSwc
WORK AT HEIGHT – TOWER SAFETY
It’s been law since the Work at Height Reg 2005 that all work at height equipment is subject to frequent inspections and specific records kept, no matter what the industry. This should not be news to any of our customers as WHS provides appropriate inspection register templates and emphasises the issue in both training and inspections.
As businesses who use scaffold towers will know, PASMA has been at the forefront of tower safety for decades, and they continue in their quest to ensure that users are not put at risk. PASMA is now launching an extremely easy system for ensuring the mandatory inspections are carried out both in sufficient detail and at the required frequencies. The system is administered using a mobile app (which doesn’t require network coverage at the point of inspection) and relays the information back to a company’s central data base to enable remote monitoring by busy managers. PASMA is using mobiles for the system as they are the one piece of equipment that, inevitably, everyone carries with them these days so is much less likely to be overlooked than paper registers, etc.
The app can be used by anyone; it takes the user through the specific steps of standard inspections and logs the results as per the requirements of the Work at Height Regulations. As it feeds back to a central company data base, it provides a comprehensive means by which the user company itself can monitor when inspections have been done, the competence of the person carrying out the inspection (i.e. which type of tower he/she has been trained on) and the results of those inspections – and it will even flag up reminders when inspections are overdue.
It really is a simple app to use …and the good news is that the system is FREE until September, and FREE forever for small companies!
All you need to know can be found on the PASMA website: https://bit.ly/3Mv9dwR
AND FINALLY
Work at height
Yet again, recent prosecutions relate predominantly to falls from height.
- Cleveland Bridge UK was fined £1.5 million and ordered to pay costs of almost £30,000 after an electrician fell 8 metres from an overhead crane when an access panel in the walkway gave way beneath him; he sustained serious injuries and was declared dead when he reached hospital.
The company had failed to maintain the walkway’s access panels and, in addition, the panel in question had been subject to weld repairs but with no evidence that it was certified safe for use.
- AJM Services (Midlands) Ltd was fined a total of £56,000 after a worker fell 6 metres to his death through a fragile asbestos roof. No netting or fall prevention measures were in place.
N.B. Note that the owner of the building, Pearsons Glass, was also fined a total of almost £87,000 under Section 3 of the Health & Safety at Work Act which places the responsibility on ALL businesses to take care of those not in their employ but affected by their activities. Clearly, the company had failed to warn about the fragility of the roof and ensure that proper precautions were established by the contractor.
- PG Skips Ltd was fined £17,500 after a young employee sustained fractures whilst clearing a blockage in a waste metal chute; the victim fell through the chute which was 4 metres above the ground. A colleague tried to catch him with a telescopic handler but the victim sustained the injuries when he hit the plant. The company had no risk assessments, nor had they considered that a worker could fall through the chute.
- Peter Saunders Builders Ltd was prosecuted after a worker fell from a tower scaffold and died of his injuries some months later. The work involved using a low-level mobile tower to gain access to height. However, the workers had only installed one guard rail and, when the victim snagged his sleeve on the top of the tower, that was enough to unbalance him and he fell to the ground.
It must be remembered that a fatality can occur even at low levels; as the photo shows, the fall was only 5 or 6 feet but was enough to kill the worker.
- Ruttle Plant Hire (Birmingham) Ltd was fined a total of over £68,500 after the HSE found, amongst other breaches, serious failings during roof work to a new facility. Access to height was by means of a cherry picker; however, at times the workers had to climb onto the roof itself and no edge protection had been planned or provided. No accident had occurred thank heavens; the results would have been catastrophic.
Asbestos
This first case is absolutely appalling and shows that, even those with the knowledge and competence, are not beyond a willingness to cut corners and break the law. Always verify competence before engagement.
- Billy Hopwood, director of Ensure Asbestos Management, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment and disqualified from being a director for 5 years after knowingly putting his employees at risk during a refurbishment. A fellow director, Phillip Hopwood, is awaiting sentence; the company itself was fined £100,000 and is now in liquidation.
The company, a previously licensed asbestos removal contractor, was engaged by a department store to carry out an asbestos survey, remove all asbestos-containing materials and then undertake an initial strip out. However, the survey and clearance certificates were found to be fraudulent, the company having deliberately put their own workers (and later building occupants) at risk.
- Both the managing director, Charles Dunn, and a fellow director, Jeremy Mills, of D&M Heritage Ltd were personally fined totals of almost £6,000 and £11,600 respectively after they organised the removal of asbestos insulation board (AIB) by untrained personnel. Despite having been previously warned by a licensed asbestos removal company that panels to the rear of cupboards were broken and likely to be AIB, the directors went ahead, and both the panels and the cupboards were broken up and left in a skip.
Plant – forklifts
- Tudor Stonework Ltd was fined a total of over £6,000 after a worker was struck by a forklift, sustaining serious injuries. The system of work for moving stone required two workers walking in front of the fork-lift to steady the slabs being carried; predictably, the fork-lift ran over the foot of one of the workers, crushing it and severely fracturing his leg.
N.B. Unfortunately, this method of steading materials being carried by plant is still common – but it is, obviously, fraught with hazards and (thereby) totally illegal. So how should it be done? If you are not sure, discuss it with your WHS advisor sooner rather than later.
- Cutting Edge Trading Ltd was fined a total of over £28,000 after a worker was fatally injured by a side-loading lift truck. Whilst unloading pallets from the side of a wagon, the forks and carriage of the lift-truck descended onto the victim who was working beneath. The company had no safe system of work in place; but surely staying well away from this type of unloading operation (or vice versa) is just common sense?
- Sole director of Queensferry Car Breakers Ltd, Mohammad Navabi, was given a 20-week suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of almost £4,000 after a worker was run over by a forklift driven by Navabi himself. Luckily, the worker survived, despite having sustained severe crush injuries. Queensferry was fined a total of almost £64,000.
Not only were there no measures in place to segregate plant and vehicles from pedestrians, but the forklift itself had not been properly maintained, being found to have no working foot or hand brake and defective steering. And the company also had no employer’s liability insurance!!
Equipment
- R.Briggs Sheetmetal Fabrication Ltd was fined a total of over £15,500 after an apprentice sustained serious injuries to his hand when it was drawn into the rotating parts of a machine. The victim had been instructed by another apprentice and a trainee on how to use the machine, which consisted of two rotating wheels operated by a foot pedal, then left unsupervised. His glove became caught between the wheels and, although he released the foot pedal, it took a few seconds to stop, by which time it was too late.
- Neil Smith (Export Services) Ltd was fined a total of almost £25,000 after a worker sustained serious injuries to a finger as it came into contact with an unguarded saw blade. The company had failed to maintain the radial arm saw; the wing nuts were broken, rendering the guard inoperable. How many more of these accidents are we going to see – accidents that are reminiscent of the Victorian age rather than 2022.
Vibration
- MTL Advanced Ltd was fined a total of over £104,000 after several workers were diagnosed with hand-arm vibration or carpal tunnel syndromes. The company had failed to recognise the risks, pay attention to symptoms when they were declared, limit exposure or establish safe systems. The heavy fine reflects the seriousness of the case.
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