UK Health & Safety News Roundup – January 2018

Health and safety is a serious issue

As health and safety consultants and experts in our field, it’s essential that we remain up to date with what’s happening in the market. Laws and regulations change. Best practices are continually evolving.

Our monthly Health and Safety News Roundup is our pick of the news items and articles that we’ve read over the past month. We hope you find this month’s selection as informative and thought-provoking as we do.

This month, the news items that have caught our attention most include two articles discussing Brexit and health and safety, and other articles that look at health and safety in offshore environments, food production and farming. Click on the headlines to read new that includes:

• The potential effects on health and safety regulations and practices that Brexit may cause companies in the UK. Will H&S amendments published in draft form in July 2018 have the desired effect? The British Safety Council is demanding that high standards are maintained.
• The HSE has warned that ‘flimsy’ procedures are to blame for leaks in the offshore industry, and has noted several shortcomings in crucial areas, including equipment and audits. It has now met with representatives of Oil and Gas UK, and various offshore health and safety managers, and together they are now working to improve health and safety records and working practices.
• Two food companies have recently been fined for health and safety offences. A baked goods manufacturer has been fined £150,000 for failing to do enough to protect workers from exposure to flour dust – a reminder that the HSE is very serious about health and safety standards in the food industry. The other fine was levied on a potato farming company, for breaches of Working at Height Regulations which led to serious injuries sustained by an employee falling from height.

As always, plenty to get your health and safety juices flowing, whatever industry you work in. Click on the headlines to reveal the full article.

·      How will Brexit affect health & safety?

With only weeks to go until we leave the EU, it’s important to understand just how Brexit will affect health & safety. What’s going to happen? Which H&S regulations will be affected? How will it all affect your H&S team’s processes and procedures? What do you and your team need to do now in order to be compliant?

·      Britain’s high health and safety standards must be protected after Brexit, demands British Safety Council

The British Safety Council reiterates its demand that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU must not in any way erode the progress made in the UK over the last four decades on workplace health, safety and welfare standards, together with the protection of workers’ rights and product safety.

·      Flimsy procedures to blame for leaks, watchdog says

Weaknesses in procedures aimed at preventing major North Sea gas leaks have been identified in a review by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

·      HSE, offshore industry working together to prevent spills

HSE recently met with representatives of Oil and Gas UK and the health and safety managers of several of the UK’s offshore producers to discuss how the industry plans to improve process safety leadership, audits and assurance.

·      Bakery fined more than £150k for health and safety offences

A manufacturer of baked goods has been fined more than £150,000 for health and safety offences involving long-term exposure to flour dust.

Potato firm fined £40,000 after worker seriously injured

A Scottish farming company has been fined £40,000 for health and safety breaches after an employee sustained serious injuries in a fall from height.

·      Health and Safety Executive calls for ‘new attitudes’ on farm safety

Agriculture has the poorest record of any industry in Britain, and latest figures show that 33 people were killed in agriculture across Britain in 2017/18 – around 18 times higher than the rate for all industry fatal injuries.

As 2019 gets underway, the Health and Safety Executive is calling for ‘new attitudes’ on how farmers can reduce on-farm injuries and fatalities. Farmers are being told they must pay closer attention to how they manage workplace risk or face serious penalties.

·      Stonework company fined for failing to guard dangerous machinery

A stonework company has been fined for failing to comply with an enforcement notice served by a health and safety inspector, requiring it to guard a stone-cutting saw.

·      Care home fined when worker severely injured after falling down a lift shaft

A privately owned care home has been fined after an employee sustained severe injuries following a fall from height. The company allowed its employees to operate a lift by opening the doors with a screwdriver. An employee entered the lift backwards and fell approximately four metres to the ground, as the platform had not been raised to the landing.

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