UK Health & Safety News Roundup – November 2018

Health and safety is a serious issue

As health and safety consultants and experts in our field, it’s essential that we remain up to date with what’s happening in the market. Laws and regulations change. Best practices are continually evolving.

Our monthly Health and Safety News Roundup is our pick of the news items and articles that we’ve read over the past month. We hope you find this month’s selection as informative and thought-provoking as we do.

This month’s news highlights how well UK industry is doing with health and safety, while also showing how much further we have to travel to what must be the ultimate goal: zero injuries and deaths in the workplace. Striking news includes:

• Amazon UK has had some bad health and safety press in the last few weeks, with revelations that there have been 440 health and safety accidents at its UK warehouses since 2015. These include forklift accidents, injuries sustained in moving machinery, and working at sub-zero temperatures.

• Manufacturers have called in the government to retain the current health and safety landscape when the UK leaves the EU. In a report published by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, and Arco, manufacturers have also requested that the government seeks to ensure that the British Standards Institution continues to play a leading role in setting European standards.

• The Network Rail Infrastructure Projects team has won three safety awards from the British Safety Council – the third year running that it has picked up a Sword of Honour. Its adherence to improved health and safety processes has led to a 70% reduction in lost time injury frequency rates.

• In more good news on the health and safety front, reportable incidents in the offshore oil and gas industry continue to fall. In 2017, ‘only’ 255 reportable incidents occurred, and not a single work-related fatality was recorded. Reportable incident numbers have now fallen by two-thirds since 2000/01.

Plenty to get your health and safety juices flowing, whatever industry you work in. Click on the headlines to reveal the full article.

·Amazon warehouse accidents total 440

Amazon has reported more than 440 health and safety incidents at its UK warehouses since 2015, according to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests. The GMB …

·Manufacturers in call to keep health and safety rules after Brexit

Manufacturers in call to keep health and safety rules after Brexit … The call is made in a wide-ranging report into the UK’s health and safety landscape published

·Ikea fined after two of worker’s fingers partially amputated

Ikea admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was also ordered to … Bristol City Council said it found more examples of health and safety

·Network Rail wins safety awards

… has been awarded three Safety Swords of Honour by the British Safety Council (BSC). … The team also had to demonstrate excellence in health and safety … stakeholder engagement, risk management, organisational health and safety

·UK offshore safety incidents slowing

Its Health and Safety Report 2018 showed a continued downward trend in reportable incidents, with 255 reported to the UK’s health and safety regulator last year

·World’s first rotational moulding health and safety guidance launched

The British Plastics Federation (BPF) has produced the world’s first rotational … The document has been approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

·Waste firm worker injury leads to £18000 fine

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there was inadequate guarding around the conveyor belt to stop workers hands from being injured

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