A Safety Consultant's day in London

Cold, early start - off to London on the 05.53 hrs train from Loughborough.
Quick stop off for breakfast at a small cafe near to Paddington Station before meeting a great client with a series of Hotel and Residential properties. A general run through some issues that they are having on one site and then off to visit a series of their more local Residential Property units. A few issues were identified on these sites and some improvements suggested (to ease the burden of record keeping). After that, it was over to Holborn to carry out a Safety Compliance Audit for the Managing Agent at a multi-let office block. Only issue on this site was to improve the control of contractors (which was largely being done well). Then back on the underground and onto the train. Train far too warm - dozed for most of the return journey.

Day over, except for some report writing ...

Another day in London a couple of weeks later
Another cold and early start, but at least the snow and ice was no longer a problem. One thought in my mind - will the student demonstrations of the previous evening create any lingering travel delays.

I met my first client of the day for a quick review of the general safety, welfare and fire safety arrangements of their small office area in a much larger building near to Victoria Station. After that, over to a smart office block near to King's Cross Station to take part in a job interview - working with a client to assist them in several interesting and challenging areas of change in their company. On at a relentless gallop over to Holborn to carry out a safety inspection of the common areas of a multi-let office block before heading home at the end on a gruelling, but interesting, day. Again, the reports need to be written up ...

Immediate Future
Several more early starts and late finishes commuting to London to continue my health and safety consultancy work. Hard work, yes - but also fascinating and fun!

Ten years in business

How time flows over us! I have now been running my own Company for ten years. Over this period, my business has developed and grown. I now work with a wider range of clients than ever before, delivering more services than ever before. Over that time, I have seen changes in health and safety legislation and changes in the way it is perceived and used. Like many consultants I too often find that health and safety is used by some employers as a reason for not doing things. However, I am able to help many of my clients improve their workplace and their productivity while improving aspects of safety. Some clients now even use health and safety as a way to market themselves and to differentiate themselves from others in similiar fields (developing a USP, in marketing speak).

To celebrate the achievement of ten years running my own business, I have added an incentive to new clients - this can be viewed on the website.

The next few years will see the Company develop further, with a greater emphasis on the food safety and on the fire safety aspects of the business.

Some simple information on asbestos

What is asbestos?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material and has been used for about 150 years on a large scale. It is versatile, plentiful and ideal as a fire-proofing and insulation material. But it can be deadly!


The three main types of asbestos that have been used commercially are:
-Crocidolite (blue)
-Amosite (brown)
-Chrysotile (white)

Basic facts:
1000 people who worked in these trades die from cancer every year as a result of breathing asbestos fibres.
There’s still a lot of old asbestos in buildings
Any building built or refurbished before 2000 is still likely to contain asbestos.
Asbestos is responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths a year

Why is it dangerous?
If you inhale asbestos fibres (which are long and thin) they can become lodged in the tissue of your chest and your body’s natural defences may not be able to easily break them down. This can lead to lung diseases (mainly cancers), particularly if you are repeatedly exposed to fibres over a number of years.

Effects on health:

- Exposure to asbestos can cause three main diseases:
- Asbestosis: irreversible scarring of the lungs;
- Lung cancer: increased incidence, particularly if you smoke;
- Mesothelioma: cancer of the lining of the lungs or stomach.
Note: These diseases have no cure – mesothelioma and lung cancer are fatal diseases.
Typically, there can be a 15–60 years gap between first exposure and diagnosis.

Who’s at risk?

- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Date cabling operatives
- Joiners
- Heating & ventilation engineers
- Construction workers
- Other similar occupations

Where is it found?

- Asbestos cement products
- Textured pain coatings
- Floors tiles, textiles and composites
- Sprayed coatings on ceilings, walls and beams
- Asbestos insulation boards
- Lagging
- Fire blankets
- Window sills
- Panelling
- Loose asbestos in ceiling/floor cavity

What to do if you discover asbestos at work:

- Stop work
- Inform supervisor/contract manager
- Inform client
- Do not restart until told to do so by contracts manager or supervisor

If you think you may be working with asbestos:

- Liaise with the client
- Request a copy of a recent asbestos survey
- Check the asbestos survey against the work that you will be doing
- Constant vigilance

What to do if you need to work with it:

- Use hand tools - not power tools: they create too much dust
- Keep materials damp - not too wet
- Wear a properly fitted, suitable mask (eg. disposable FFP3 type). An ordinary dust mask will not be effective
- Don't smoke, eat or drink in the work area
- Double-bag asbestos waste and label the bags clearly and correctly
- Clean up as you go - use a special (Class H) vacuum cleaner, don’t sweep up asbestos.
- After work, wipe down your overalls with a damp rag or wear disposable overalls
- Always remove overalls before removing your mask
- Don't take overalls home to wash
- Wear boots without laces or use disposable boot covers
- Put disposable clothing items in asbestos waste bags and dispose of them properly- don’t reuse disposable clothing.

- Don't carry asbestos into your car or home – even accidentally!

Need Help? Need Asbestos Awareness Training? Website

Buncefield fines -

Five companies have been told to pay more than £9m for their parts in the Buncefield oil depot fire which occurred in December 2005. It is reported that the explosion was equivalent to a 2.4-magnitude earthquake and it caused Europe's biggest fire since World War Two.

Sentencing the firms at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Sir David Calvert-Smith said:

"Had the explosion happened during a working day, the loss of life may have been measured in tens or even hundreds."

The companies were fined a total of £5.35m and ordered to pay costs of £4.08m.

Total was fined £3.6m plus £2.6m in costs, Hertfordshire Oil Storage was fined £1.45m plus £1m costs, British Pipeline Agency will pay £300,000 plus £480,000 in costs, Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd (now in administration) and TAV Engineering were both fined £1,000 and each ordered to pay £500 in costs.

Scores on the foods - Food Hygiene

The launch of the new Scores on the Doors website has sharpened the focus on restaurant hygiene. The scores are based on audits conducted by Environmental Health Officers on visits to premises.

For those with a strong health and hygiene record, the chance to have their scores displayed on a website is a great opportunity to obtain more customers and communicate high standards. Conversely, those with low scores are facing increasing media scrutiny: with a string of articles using Scores on the Doors to condemn and vilify restaurants for their poor hygiene.

The control of pests, such as mice, rats, flies and cockroaches, is a crucial aspect of a restaurant’s overall hygiene and one that all restaurant owners should be aware of. There is no reason for restaurants to fear the negative consequences if they are aware of the signs to look for and take simple preventative measures to reduce the level of risk.
Here are a few handy hints that are useful to remember:

• dark spots on ceilings can be identified as fly faeces
• dark smear marks on the floors, doors and skirting boards will appear from mice and rodents’ fur
• droppings and smears can appear in areas that are not regularly cleaned, such as the window display of a restaurant
• fly traps with large amounts of dead flies probably don’t work any more and will need servicing

But perhaps the most important method of preventing infestation is to ensure that your premises is clean and tidy. Not only will this help to improve your overall score, but a clean and tidy premises is one that pests don’t tend to infest.

• Food should also be stored correctly on shelving, and in refrigerators and freezer units.
• Crates and boxes should be stacked 70cm away from the wall to prevent rodents getting easy access.
• Kitchen, and front-of-house staff need to be educated on the signs and risks of infestation and should be expected to act responsibly when cleaning the premises and handling food.
• Restaurants should arrange preventative inspections, rather than hiring them reactively.

As more councils sign up to the scheme, scores are becoming more important in attracting business and retaining existing business and, hopefully, raise the general standards of the industry.

Need help? Contact us through our website

Fall from height - large fines

Two Gloucestershire companies have been fined after a roofing contractor fell through a skylight and suffered serious head injuries.

The two companies were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after a contractor fell through a fragile roof skylight while working on the roof of a sawmill building at Mile End, Coleford, Gloucestershire. The contractor fell five metres and landed on the concrete floor below, sustaining serious head injuries.

At a hearing before Gloucester Magistrates, the Sawmill company pleaded guilty to four breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 and 2007 and was fined a total of £13,320 and ordered to pay costs of £14,443.

The owner of the contracting company pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined a total of £26,660 and ordered to pay costs of £14,443.


Speaking after the hearing, An HSE inspector said:

"This incident highlights the extremely serious risks posed by working at heigh if adequate safety protection measures are not in place ... The investigation revealed significant failures in the safe systems of work for the removal of the roof sheets and also significant failure to control risks of working at height during all of the stages of the sawmill refurbishment. RS was supervising two other employees who were also at risk, one of whom was only 17 at the time of this incident ... The sawmill remained open during all of the works and employees working below were also at risk from persons or objects falling on them. (The) fall could easily have proved fatal."

Contact us through the website

High street retailer loses appeal against a record £400,000 fine for Fire Safety breaches

A major high street retailers appeal against its record £400,000 fine for fire safety breaches at its Oxford Street store was dismissed last week (Thursday 17th), with the Court of Appeal saying the fine was not excessive in view of the company’s “lamentable” performance of fire safety duties.

In a significant judgement for responsible persons under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the court decided that the level of the fine was not excessive in relation to the seriousness of the offences, the size and nature of the company, and the risk to the public which the company ran. The court also held that the fine was not out of kilter with those for offences under general health and safety legislation where there was a risk of death or serious injury.

The conviction of the company last November followed a fire at its Oxford Street store on 26 April 2009, which resulted in a chaotic evacuation of some 400 people, the closure part of Oxford Street for two days, and the eventual demolition of the building. The company was subsequently prosecuted and pleaded guilty to two main counts under the Fire Safety Order – failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, and failing to ensure that employees were given adequate fire safety training. Other alleged detailed breaches were taken into account under these two counts.

The Court of Appeal concluded that while it accepted that the fire itself was not caused by the retailer’s breaches of duty, (the cause of the fire has never been established) the offences were serious enough to create a magnitude of risk in which death and serious injury in the fire was avoided by luck.

The appeal judges also agreed with the trial judge that a starting point for a fine in these circumstances was £600,000. This was rightly reduced to £400,000 in view of nobody being killed or injured, the company pleading guilty and co-operating with the investigation at the earliest opportunity, and the company demonstrating that it had taken significant steps to remedy fire safety shortcomings across its stores.

While maintaining that the principles of setting the level of fines under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 were similar to those for the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the court said the trial judge was right to recognise “that the nature of the risk that employees and others were to be protected was the risk from death or serious injury in a fire. Fire can be indiscriminate in its effect and, in the case of an organisation which in the centre of a large city undertakes responsibility for large numbers of visitors to its premises, breaches will usually be a very serious matter.”

The Court of Appeal concluded: “We share the judge’s view that the appellant’s performance of its fire safety duties in a large department store in the centre of London was lamentable. The fines were, we recognise, severe, but they were not on our judgement manifestly excessive and the appeal is dismissed.”

In a statement issued after the judgement, the retailer said:

"We are committed to putting the health and safety of customers and employees first. Although the appeal against the fine was unsuccessful, we note that the original 35 alleged breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) were reduced to 2 offences and at no time has it been alleged that the company was either responsible for the fire, or that its breaches of the RRFSO caused the fire."