Health and Safety 2017

By Andy Brazier

This book covers all the key elements of health and safety as it stands as a discipline at the beginning of 2017. It provides a quick reference, focussing on hazards in the workplace and practical controls of risk. The aim has been to present the health and safety processes so that, if these are understood, appropriate solutions to a very large range of health and safety issues can be developed.
Throughout this book reference has been made to many different documents, most of which are available free from the UK Health and Safety Executive’s website.
This book has been arranged, to a large extent, around the syllabus of the NEBOSH National General Certificate (NGC). It is hoped that the book will be a useful aid to people studying for the certificate, acting as a supplement to training material from course providers or to assist in self-study.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781326923747

Andy Brazier

Andy Brazier has a Chemical Engineering degree from Loughborough University (1986-1990). He obtained a PhD in 1996 on the subject of Human Factors in the Process Industry, and was lucky enough to have Trevor Kletz act as his external for this. Andy has over 20 years of consultancy experience in the process industries with particular expertise in human factors and process safety. He has written research reports for the UK Health and Safety Executive, presented at multiple conference including IChemE Hazards and had a number of articles published in the Loss Prevention Bulletin. Andy is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and Associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers.

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Health and Safety 2017

Health and Safety 2017

© Andy Brazier January 2017

www.simplesensiblesafety.co.uk

[e-mail]

Document History

First Published as ‘Health and Safety 2007’ in January 2007

Amended November 2007, January 2009, December 2009, January 2012 and January 2017

All rights reserved.  No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.  Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions.  Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained in this book.

Cover photo used with the kind permission of Starboard.  The rider is Kevin Pritchard and the photographer was John Carter.

Introduction

This book covers all the key elements of health and safety as it stands as a discipline at the beginning of 2017.  It provides a quick reference, focussing on hazards in the workplace and practical controls of risk.  The aim has been to present the health and safety processes so that, if these are understood, appropriate solutions to a very large range of health and safety issues can be developed. 

Reference is made throughout this book to UK legislation.  However, a conscious effort has been made to not let this drive the contents because the author feels that understanding the hazards and processes is a much better way of making sure risks are controlled.  Clearly legal compliance is important, but it is important to remember that legislation is developed because an issue exists.  Therefore, if you have dealt with the issue appropriately you will normally have done more than enough to comply with legislation and your solution is likely to be more appropriate to your business than if you had only done what the legislation requires.

This update is coming out at an interesting time for health and safety in the UK.  After several years of relatively little change, the perception that health and safety is a burden on industry and society as a whole, combined with challenging economic climate has resulted in efforts to ‘simplify’ legislation and the way it is implemented. 

References

Throughout this book reference has been made to many different documents, most of which are available free from the UK Health and Safety Executive’s website at http://www.hse.gov.uk.  It is hoped that this will mean that you the reader, with access to the internet, can drill down to more detail where you needed it.

National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH)

This book has been arranged, to a large extent, around the syllabus of the NEBOSH National General Certificate (NGC).  This is because the syllabus appears to provide a very comprehensive overview of all the key issues of health and safety.  Also, by doing this it is hoped that the book will be a useful aid to people studying for the certificate, acting as a supplement to training material from course providers or to assist in self-study. 

The NGC has long been recognised as the essential introduction to the fundamentals of occupational health and safety and is the most popular qualification of its kind. Since its launch in 1989 over 100,000 people have achieved the award in the UK and abroad, including Australasia, the Middle East and the West Indies.

About the Author

Andy Brazier is a risk consultant, specialising in health and safety, human factors and ergonomics.  He has a wide experience of working with industry, especially in the major hazard sectors (most notable oil, gas, power and chemicals).  He has a reputation for being able to assess complex situations to develop simple and sensible solutions.

You can find out more about his background and experience at www.abrisk.co.uk He would love to hear if you have any comments or questions about this book, or if he can help you with any of risk and safety issues.  He can be contacted at [e-mail]

1.                                   Health and safety foundations

1.1                                  Why health and safety?

At the start of this topic it is important to consider why health and safety should be an important part of any business.  There are a number of reasons, and they fall into the following categories:

•         Moral - people have a right to leave work safe and sound;

•         Business - good safety can improve productivity and efficiency directly or by motivating the workforce;

•         Financial - accidents and ill health cost a lot of money;

•         Legal – failure to comply with legislation is likely to result in unwanted costs and publicity, both of which are bad for business.

Whilst it is easy to become fixated with the legal perspective, the reality is that legislation has developed as a result of accidents and incidents.  Focussing on the moral, business and financial factors achieves better health and safety performance and ensures organisations stay ahead of legislation.

1.2                                  The cost of poor safety

There is a well-known saying if you think safety is expensive, try having an accident.  This can be a convincing argument for investment beyond the basic moral responsibility.

If someone is injured or becomes ill and is unable to work, an organisation is likely to face some or all of the following costs:

•         Compensation;

•         Fines;

•         Legal costs in defence of a prosecution or civil claim;

•         Paying overtime or hiring extra people to provide cover for the injured person;

•         Lost production;

•         Repair costs;

•         Loss of reputation;

•         Insurance excess;

•         Increased insurance premiums.

Other costs can be experienced when an organisation is required to change the way it does business as the result of an accident or non-conformance identified by a regulator or other third party.  This can include paying consultants to carry out reviews, buying new equipment or changing to less productive or profitable processes.  Whilst it may be argued that these changes are part of the normal business expenditure, ‘distress purchases’ after an event often mean that the organisation has less time to assess their options or choose the most cost effective solution.  In the UK, the HSE is able recover its costs when intervening in cases where an organisation has broken health and safety law.  Whilst initially limited to a relatively small number of industries, this is being expanded so that it could apply to any organisation.   

Whilst organisations have insurance this only covers a relatively small proportion of the total potential costs, and often only covers certain types of event (i.e. insurance may only cover costs above and/or below certain values).

The trouble with the simple financial argument is that before an accident has occurred, the potential costs are hypothetical, whilst the cost for improving safety is very real. 

1.3                                  Duty of care

Over the years it has been established that employers and employees have a common law duty of care to each other and to other people. This requires them to exercise reasonable care to the risks of foreseeable injury, death or health problems.

1.3.1                                  Employers’ duty of care

Employers have a duty of care to provide a safe workplace.  They will be liable if someone is harmed because they failed to take reasonable steps to protect against a known risk or one they should have known about.

1.3.2                                  Employees’ duty of care

Whilst employees have rights they also have a duty to exercise reasonable care in their own actions to avoid harm to themselves and others. This includes co-operating with their employer in the management of risks.

1.3.3                                  Self-employed

Although there is no employer – employee relationship, self-employed people still have health and safety duties.  This includes to themselves and others who may be affected by their work.  However, from October 2015 a change in UK legislation means that for a self-employed person whose work activity poses no potential risk to others then health and safety law will not apply to them. 

Reference - The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (General Duties of Self-Employed Persons) (Prescribed Undertakings) Regulations 2015 available free at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1583/pdfs/uksi_20151583_en.pdf

1.3.4                                  Contractors and agency workers

Responsibility for the health and safety of contractors and agency workers is not always straightforward because identifying someone’s employer with regard to health and safety is not as easy as identifying who pays their wages.  There will typically be a shared responsibility between the contractor company and the company that has engaged the contractor, and the degree to which each is responsible will depend on a number of factors including:

•         The degree of control exercised over the worker;

•         Who provides tools and equipment;

•         Who fixes the place and time of work;

•         Whose business it is.

Reference – Health and Safety Executive website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/enforcementguide/investigation/status-specific.htm

1.4                                  Key UK legislation

There are two key pieces of UK legislation that drive the whole health and safety legal scene.  There are many other acts and regulations, some of which are summarised in Appendix A. 

The key pieces of legislation are:

•         The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA)

•         The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSW)

Most other legislation builds on these, imposing more specific duties as required by the topic.

1.4.1                                  HSWA 1974

Under the Act, employers have the following duties:

•         Protect health, safety and welfare of employees;

•         Provide and maintain safe systems of work;

•         Ensure safety in the use, handling, storage and transportation of articles and substances;

•         Provide information, supervision and training;

•         Provide safe places and environments for work, with safe access and egress;

•         Provide adequate welfare facilities and arrangements;

•         Produce a written health and safety policy if five or more people are employed at any one time for a single undertaking (see the next chapter for more details);

•         Protect people not in their employment that may be affected by their operations;

•         Consult safety representatives and establish a safety committee when requested by two or more safety representatives;

•         Provide free of charge items required by statutory provisions.

The HSWA 1974 also places duties on employees including:

•         Take reasonable care for themselves and others who might be affected by their acts or omissions;

•         Cooperate with their employer or other person so far as is necessary to enable them to comply with their own statutory duties and requirements;

•         Not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety