Individual fire authorities are responsible for creating appropriate strategies for their own area.  With limited resources and many calls on those resources fire authorities have to make difficult decisions about how they allocate those resources. Sometimes those decisions can be controversial, response to fire alarms is sometimes a sensitive area. The latest figures from the Home Office show that 40% … Read More

The Health and Safety Executive’s Fee For Intervention (FFI) scheme was launched in October 2012, this allows the HSE to charge organisations for the costs involved in investigating, issuing notices and assisting in correcting material breaches of health and safety regulations. This is charged at an hourly rate based on the amount of time taken by an inspector on the … Read More

The HSE report that every year around 14 people die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gas appliances and flues which have not been properly installed or maintained, faulty gas installations can also cause fires and explosions. Anyone who carries out work on relevant gas installations and pipelines must be officially approved to carry out this work. The register of … Read More

Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises are required to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences to the relevant authority. In England, Scotland and Wales reports can be made online via the HSE’s website at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/report.htm fatalities, specified injuries and major incidents can … Read More

Well done to everyone who got passed the headline. The UK’s exit from the EU is a topic that provokes strong emotions and many pages of text, but what will the actual impact on health and safety regulation be? To a large extent that will depend on what deal is finally agreed and you are recommended to regularly check relevant … Read More

Statistics show that around 250 people die each year as a result of accidental drowning in the UK’s inland waters including rivers, canals, harbours, lakes, etc. Almost a quarter of these cases occurred at enclosed waters such as lakes, quarries and reservoirs. If you are responsible for a body of water, land alongside a body of water, or you carry … Read More

While 3D printers may not yet be a feature of every office, school and workplace they have been steadily growing in popularity. As their use increases, a number of concerns have been raised about safety, and studies have suggested, ultrafine particles are likely to be emitted from the 3D printer as the filament is extruded through the nozzle. Evidence suggests … Read More

In 2015 the HSE launched the Workplace Health Expert Committee (WHEC) to provide independent expert opinion on new and emerging issues in workplace health. The WHEC recently carried out a review of scientific research and published a position paper looking at the impacts on health of sedentary work. The paper finds that while sedentary lifestyles are shown to increase the … Read More

Government departments are subject to regular review and recently the Department for Work and Pensions published the findings of their latest review of the work of the HSE. Overall this latest review found the HSE is a well-respected and well-structured organisation that fulfils its statutory objectives effectively, however a number of recommendations were made. Most of the recommendations concern how … Read More

The Water Management Society (WMSoc) has made available a number of factsheets produced by the Rapid Microbiology Industry Liaison Group. The factsheets aim to give information about a number of current rapid test kits and their potential capabilities. These can be found on the training section of the WMSoc website at: https://www.wmsoc.org.uk/legionella-training-courses/ WMSoc is a not-for-profit membership organisation providing practical … Read More