From 6 April 2012, subject to Parliamentary approval, RIDDOR’s over three day injury reporting requirement will change. From then the trigger point will increase from over three days’ to over seven days’ incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened).
Incapacitation means that the worker is absent or is unable to do work that they would reasonably be expected to do as part of their normal work.
Employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over three day injuries – if the employer has to keep an accident book, then this record will be enough.
The deadline by which the over seven day injury must be reported will increase to 15 days from the day of the accident.
New guidance that explains the change is available to download from the HSE website.
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l73.pdf

Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 91 provides a set of questions to be asked by buyers of potential suppliers to enable prequalification for construction related procurement.
It is a uniform set of core questions for stage one pre-qualification exercises.
I read with interest that the construction industry may finally have a standardised PQQ that has a likelihood of being adopted uniformly throughout by contractors.
The idea is that contractors will be able to send a single set of answers for every contract that they bid on.
It is widely recognized that excessive prequalification activity adds unacceptable cost, bureaucracy and confusion to the construction supply chain.
The government has announced that it wants all of central government departments to be using it.
The Government appreciates that although it is voluntary the potential savings of many millions of pounds, coupled with a high level of industry support will see it adopted as a standard in the future.
PAS 91:2010 was developed in partnership with the British Standards Institute and a panel of trade bodies. (ECA, SEC Group, NFB, FMB and CECA)
PAS 91 is available for free download. www.http://shop.bsigroup.com

The new legislation is designed to replace the Health & Safety (Fees) Regulations 2010.

The policy of HM Government and the HSE Board is to place a duty on HSE to recover costs where a company (duty holder) is found to be in material breach of health and safety law.

If the duty holder has breached health and safety law and a requirement to rectify the breach is formally made in writing (e.g. by way of improvement and prohibition notices, electronic mail or letter), the HSE
plans to recover all of the costs of that intervention. This is known as ‘fee for intervention’. Compliant duty holders would pay nothing.

Subsequently, the duty holder may be required to pay approximately £750.00 – £1500.00 as part of HSE’s cost recovery for the services provided i.e. provision of a letter/ e mail, related to making health, safety and welfare recommendations and /or the issue of improvement / enforcement notices.

The HSE consultation document can be accessed at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd235.htm

The proposed changes are due to come into force on 6th April 2012.

All companies should ensure that it has an appropriate continuous risk management process. Each company will organise its strategy differently, but the procedure will generally involve:-

• Identifying and quantifying the inherent risks in the company;
• Selecting the appropriate risk management controls and transferring or avoiding those risks that the business is not competent or prepared to manage;
• Implementing controls measures to manage the residual risks;
• Monitoring & measuring the effectiveness of management controls; and learning from experience and introducing continuous improvements.

Identifying the risks

The first and most important step is to identify the risks and associated threats to the business. This can be achieved by carrying out a risk assessment to determine the likelihood and severity of the hazards and the associated risks to the organisation and its stakeholders i.e. employees, clients and suppliers.

Business Continuity Planning

Formal processes and procedures which deal with threats identified during risk assessment are often referred to as Business Continuity Plans. These set out what you should do if an unplanned event(s) happens, for example, if a fire severely damages or destroys your equipment, machinery or premises.

Professional Services

We can offer a cost effective & bespoke service, endeavoring to help your organisation to become self-sufficient, by providing advice, information, instruction and training to ensure legal compliance.

If your company is currently evaluating its business risk strategy and is seeking professional assistance with the development of its business management systems, please contact Mr. Ian Barker.

Ian R Barker CMIOSH OSHCR MCQI CQP IRCA
Chartered Safety, Health and Quality Assurance Practitioner

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