January 5th, 2012

Case Study: Are You Vetting & Managing Your Contractors?

Electrical retail giant Comet has been fined £75,000 after a contractor fell through a roof light at its Wrexham store.

Comet Group Plc contracted Wrexham Roof Services Ltd, to clear guttering and replace leaking roof lights at its store in Mount Street. Paul Alker, 33 had been sub-contracted by Wrexham Roof Services to help carry out the repairs.

On 7 June 2007, Mr Alker was walking across the roof when he stepped on a roof light and fell 25 feet on to the store floor. He died from his injuries.

The HSE issued an Improvement Notice against Comet in August 2007, which required the company to improve its contractor management systems. HSE inspector Debbie John revealed that Mr Alker hadn’t been provided with any equipment to prevent falls, and no attempts had been made to cover the fragile roof lights.

The law is clear that companies must ensure contractors are competent to do the work they are hired to do, and they need to understand their responsibilities. A safe system of work must be agreed and the company should monitor contractors to make sure they undertake work safely, as agreed

January 13th, 2012

HSE Introduces Arrangements for Reporting of Injuries and Incidents

From 12 September 2011 RIDDOR reporting will move to a predominantly online systems with seven forms available on the HSE’s website to make the process quick and easy.  The HSE do recognise, however, that people reporting a traumatic event still need that personal interaction so the notification of fatal and major incident and injuries will still take place by phone.

In addition HSE’s Infoline, which currently provides a basic information service to callers will end on 30 September 2011.

Businesses and members of the public seeking information and official guidance on health and safety can use HSE’s website – a huge knowledge bank where people can access and download information free of charge and use interactive web tools.