Coming soon, potentially to a company near you

Have you heard a rumour of another potential charge on a business?

This is more than rumour: The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) will charge companies if they visit them if that visit results in some form of enforcement action. This will start from 01 October 2012 and it is not something that the HSE will have discretion about; it will be mandatory and could affect any company, including those reading this article.  Gordon MacDonald (the HSE's programme director), said:

"The Government has agreed that it is right that those who break the law should pay their fair share of the costs to put things right - and not the public purse.  These proposals provide a further incentive for people to operate within the law, levelling the playing field between those who comply and those who don't. Compliant firms will not pay a penny in intervention fees."

So, how much might a company be charged by the HSE?

Cost recovery is almost certainly going to be at £124. The actual costs that will recovered by the HSE (when the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012 come into force) will be dependent on the complexity of the investigation that is required to follow all reasonable lines of enquiry, but some guideline figures have been offered:

•               Inspection with no action taken - No costs will be recovered

•               Inspection which results in a letter - Approximately £750

•               Inspection which results in Enforcement Notice - Approximately £1500

•               Investigations carried out by the HSE - Ranging from approximately £750 through to several thousands of pounds to, in extreme cases, tens of thousands of pounds

Looking for some simple steps to avoid such charges?

The obvious answer is to do the common-sense things and ensure that you are (and remain) compliant with the relevant Health and Safety legislation and this will help you to avoid attracting the unwanted attention of the HSE:

•               Keep your health and safety policy and associated procedures up to date.

•               Keep your risk assessments reviewed and up to date.

•               Ensure that you have adequate control over your contractors.

•               Take prompt action to prevent situations developing that may attract the interest of the HSE.

•               Ensure that you keep suitable records.

•               Keep your employee training records up to date.

Your actions may protect your employees, but it is your records that will protect your Company and provide you with peace of mind.

Michael Ellerby

Director, LRB Consulting Limited
Tel: 01509 550023 www.Lrbconsulting.co.uk  

Changes to asbestos legislation, 2012

Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012

These new regulations came into force on 05 April 2012. In practice the changes arising from the new Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 are fairly limited. They mean that some types of non-licensed work with asbestos now have additional requirements, i.e. notification of work, medical surveillance and record keeping. This can be considered as notifiable, non-licensed work.  All other requirements remain unchanged.

The Changes:

• From 6 April 2012, some non-licensed asbestos work needs to be notified to the relevant enforcing authority.
• From the same date, brief written records must be kept of non-licensed asbestos work that has to be notified e.g. copy of the notification with a list of workers on the job, plus the level of likely exposure of those workers to asbestos. This does not require air monitoring on every job, if an estimate of degree of exposure can be made based on experience of similar past tasks or published guidance.
• By April 2015, all workers (and self employed) doing notifiable non-licensed work with asbestos must be under health surveillance by a Doctor. Workers who are already under health surveillance for licensed work need not have another medical examination for non-licensed work. 
• Note that medicals for notifiable non-licensed work are not acceptable for those doing licensed work.

For further information about the services that we can provide, place visit our website.

The HSE has produced a chart to assist in determining which of the (now three possible) catergories work with asbestos falls into:

• Licensed Asbestos Works
• Notifiable, Non-licensed work Asbestos Works
• Notifiable Asbestos Works

Sourced from HSE Website

Sunday night - before the week ahead

Update - on Friday 09 December 2012
Team away day - Focus on 2012
The Safety Team met off site for a discussion on the challenges of the year ahead. This proved to be an extremely interesting and useful session. It allowed the Team to be more fully involved in the running of the business and in the process of considering how next year will shape up for us. We even managed to fit in a session of using Fire Extinguishers (carried out by our in house Senior Fire Safety Consultant). We have even filmed this to provide some YouTube footage, to be uploaded shortly.

Many ideas and approaches were raised by the team. These have been captured and a précis of the meeting notes is to be circulated on Monday, with actions and individuals responsible for them clearly identified. I am convinced that we are focussed on 2012 and that we will be able to progress the business in the New Year!

Wednesday's training course went really well. Hagrid did a great job of working the delegates hard and ensuring that they left enthused to achieve. I wonder how contact back with reality has hit them this morning!

For my part, the site visits at the start of the week went without any hitches and the reports have been sent onto the clients for them to action, as appropriate. The Networking session on Tuesday morning was excellent and that group is destined for great things (in my opinion).

Testimonial from a course delegate:

The issue of Health & Safety can be seen to be an obstacle to be overcome rather than an opportunity to be taken.  Mike Ellerby and Peter Phillips dispel the myths of Health & Safety and replace them with commonsense.  Like it or not, we all have to deal with Health & Safety.  Mike and his team will save you time, angst and potentially significant sums of money should you get your Health & Safety wrong.

Testimonial from a course delegate:

I recently attended the Level 2 Health & Safety in the Workplace course at (run by Mike Ellerby and Peter Phillips). The course was interesting with lot's of interaction in very comfortable surroundings, the trainer was very knowledgable re all aspects of H & S in the work place and I came away feeling more confident in my role as Health & Safety office within my work place. I would like to thank (Mike and Peter) and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Initial section of the Blog (now relegated to the rear of this blog)
I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the drive down to Lymington today, but it was reasonably hassle free.

I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel (booked on Late Rooms) and by the balcony overlooking the High Street. The Christmas tree on the balcony was a nice touch. The food (enjoyed from a window table while creating this blog) was pleasant and I enjoyed a Peroni with it.

Tomorrow starts with an early start on Lymington High Street (mainly to carry out an Accessibility Audit) and a then short drive over to Salisbury to look at the common areas of an Industrial Estate.

I'm looking forward to the Networking meeting early on Tuesday morning. There are some excellent relationships being built at that club.

On Wednesday we are running a training course in our offices and on Thursday meeting with three potential new clients.

Friday is an "away day" for the Safety Team to discuss our focus for 2012. I have to admit that I'm looking forward to that.

Health and Safety in 2012 - keeping a competitive edge

Worried about safety in 2012?
Many people (including business owners, managers and directors) are looking forward to 2012 and wondering what it will have in store for them. Health and safety is one of those things that companies need to get right, but which should not compromise the economic viability of the company.

With many companies worried about expenditure, it is right that they should be worried that the health and safety of their workers may be compromised. We offer a solution to that problem: appoint us to work with you on your health and safety. True: we charge for that service. Also true: we are likely to be more cost effective than you struggling to do it in-house and then not having the time to do it properly. The benefit of appointing us is that we know what we are doing and we will work with you to improve your safety performance.

Contact us through our website

Health and Safety in 2012

Have you thought about health and safety in the New Year? Will be doing anything different next year? Does safety feature prominently in your business plans for the year(s) ahead?

If you want to do things differently and you need support, please contact LRB Consulting.