What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls NICK PATIENCE CMIOSH NICK PATIENCE SAFETY AND TRAINING LTD
What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls
NICK PATIENCE CMIOSH
NICK PATIENCE SAFETY AND TRAINING LTD
About me
Copyright Notice
• ‘Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence’.
• Other sources are acknowledged
Overview
• Who will they visit?• HSE’s published plans for 2019-2020
• Sector Plans
• HSE’s advice for Local Authority plans for 2019-2020
• Fee for Intervention
• Enforcement Decision making
• Investigations
Targeted Inspection
• in sectors which have the most serious risks
• where there is information and intelligence that health and safety is a significant concern, such as:
• previous performance
• concerns raised by workers, the public or others
• incident investigations
• reports of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences
HSE planning
• Direct limited resource
• Planning for interventions other than inspection
• Sector Plans• 19 plans from Agriculture to Waste
• Health Priority Plans• Occupational Lung Disease• Musculoskeletal Disorders• Work related Stress
• Small Business
Construction - Aims
• Embedding the principles of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM)
• Focusing on a reduction in the cases of occupational lung disease, MSDs and work-related stress
• Supporting small businesses to achieve improved risk management and control
Construction - Inspection
• directing inspection and enforcement at:• those failing to manage and control risks, focusing on
health risks,
• refurbishment activity, and
• licensed asbestos removal;
• visiting targeted dutyholders to encourage self-assessment and progressive development of their health risk management.
ManufacturingSector Health topic When
Woodworking Wood Dust April - June
Food manufacture Flour Dust and musculoskeletal disorders
July - September
Molten Metals Respirable Crystalline Silica
October - December
Fabricated metals Welding fume, MWF January - March
Rubber Rubber Fume January - March
Local Authority National Priorities
• Construction – Duty to manage asbestos
• Falls from height
• RCS
• Visitor attractions – animal contact
• Inflatable amusement devices
• Beverage gases
• Gas safety in catering
• Welfare for delivery drivers
• Access to large commercial bins by the public
LA - Topics – proactive inspection
• Legionella – cooling towers evaporative condensers
• LPG at camping /caravan parks
• Open farms/petting zoos
• High volume warehousing/distribution –workplace transport
• Fall from height/ amputations/crush injuries-industrial retail/wholesale premises
Proactive inspection - continued
• Noise – steel stockholders
• RCS – gravestones/worktops
• Flour dust – instore bakeries
• MSDs - residential care
• Manual handling – warehousing/wholesale/distribution
• Crowd Management – live events/sports/festivals
• CO poisoning - commercial catering
• Violence – Cash handling/lone workers
• Professional firework displays.
MEC and MPMC
• Matters of evident concern• create a risk of serious personal injury or ill-
health and which are observed (i.e. self-evident) or brought to the attention of the inspector.
• Matters of Potential Major Concern• realistic potential to cause either multiple
fatalities or multiple cases of acute or chronic ill-health.
Powers of Inspectors
• Factories Act
• Section 20 of HSWA
• Entry at any time?
• Regulator’s Code – no inspection without a reason
• Power of persuasion
Fee for intervention
• Material Breach of health and safety law
• It currently costs £154 an hour
Decision Making
• Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS)
• The Enforcement Management Model (EMM)
EMM - Overview
EXAMPLE - assume no guard and smaller drill
OptionsNo actionVerbal adviceWritten advice NoCProhibition NoticeImprovement NoticeProsecution
Image by gussencion from Pixabay
EXAMPLE
Actual risk – minor injury possible
Benchmark – minor injury remote
Therefore – nominal risk gap
• Guarding of drills is an established standard – nominal risk gap – verbal warning only (a breach of PUWER Reg 11 – but not a material breach for FFI purposes)
Larger Drill
If drill is larger –or there is some other factor which suggests that the actual risk here is greater than previously described – the following could apply
Image by gussencion from Pixabay
Actual risk – significant injury possible
Benchmark – significant injury remote
Therefore – moderate risk gap
Guarding of drills is an established standard – moderate risk gap – letter /NoC form (a breach of PUWER Reg 11 – possibly a material breach for FFI purposes)
The inspector will work through all duty holder factors for a letter.The key one here is the final box.
If the inspector is satisfied the duty holder can and will comply – the EMM indicates verbal warning and therefore this is not a material breach. Some confidence in dutyholder the letter/NoC stands. However - if little or no confidence – an Improvement Notice is indicated. Two further checks are made – strategic factors and an enforcement conclusion review (not illustrated).
INVESTIGATIONS – selection criteria• All work-related accidents which result in the
death of any person, including non-workers.
• All work-related accidents resulting in a “Specified Injury” [RIDDOR Reg. 4(1)] to any person, including non-workers, that meet any of the following conditions:
• Serious multiple fractures (more than one bone, not including wrist or ankle);
• All amputations other than amputation of digit(s) above the first joint (e.g. fingertip);
• Permanent blinding in one or both eyes;
INVESTIGATIONS - selection• Crush injuries leading to internal organ damage, e.g.
ruptured spleen;
• Any burn injury (including scalding) which covers more than 10% of the surface area of the body or causes significant damage to the eyes, respiratory system or vital organs;
• Any degree of scalping requiring hospital treatment;
• Loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia;
• Any injury arising from working in an enclosed space which leads to hypothermia or heat induced illness, or requires resuscitation or hospital admittance for more than 24 hours.
INVESTIGATIONS - selection
• All reports of cases of occupational disease which are reportable under RIDDOR Regulations 8 – 10
• Other reports of cases of occupational disease with the potential to cause death or a “serious health effect” as defined in EMM, and which arise from working practices that are likely to be ongoing at the time the report is made.
INVESTIGATIONS - selection
• Incidents which indicate a likelihood of a serious breach of health and safety law:
• Major hazard precursor events: