To find out the latest HSE information go to:
http://www.hsenews.com/
www.she.ltd.uk
Monday 31 March 2008
safety sales pitch April 08
SHE LTD
safetyadviser.co.uk will soon be going Ltd. Our new name will be SHE Ltd.
Why SHE? SHE stands for: Safety Health Environment We aim to provide the total safety health and environment package. SHE Ltd has a new website. It is currently under construction. Go to: www.she.ltd.uk contact info@she.ltd.uk
SHE Ltd will go live on the 5th April 08
Guaranteed friendly and professional advice
Check out the blog:
Information on "Safe Environment" and updates go to:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
The safety sales pitch is issued at the end of every month. It is the sales newsletter from safetyadviser.co.uk. This newsletter complements the free information issued in the mid month newsletter "Safe Environment".
safetyadviser.co.uk will soon be going Ltd. Our new name will be SHE Ltd.
Why SHE? SHE stands for: Safety Health Environment We aim to provide the total safety health and environment package. SHE Ltd has a new website. It is currently under construction. Go to: www.she.ltd.uk contact info@she.ltd.uk
SHE Ltd will go live on the 5th April 08
Guaranteed friendly and professional advice
Check out the blog:
Information on "Safe Environment" and updates go to:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
The safety sales pitch is issued at the end of every month. It is the sales newsletter from safetyadviser.co.uk. This newsletter complements the free information issued in the mid month newsletter "Safe Environment".
Safety News Letter April 08
Welcome to this months safety newsletter. The idea of these newsletters is to raise safety awareness and get you involved. Health & Safety legisl! ation now requires employers to address the risks associated with work related vehicle use. In order to help reduce the road risks, prevent accidents and save lives this month's newsletter is about road safety
Hazards Identified (something with the potential to cause harm)
Equipment: the vehicle’s suitability; it’s condition and it’s maintenance regime. Environmental: adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow and wind. Journey: routes (use of minor and major roads); scheduling (travelling at peak traffic times). Human Factors: the driver; their fitness, health; training and competence; their experience; their attitude to driving, road safety and speed; drink and drugs; fatigue.
Who may be harmed?
The driver and passengers plus other road users including pedestrians are at risk.
Recommended control measures (these are the things that you can do):
The vehicle
A vehicle must be fit for purpose, maintained; insured and holding a valid MOT. Check for defects before use: tyre wear, lights, and damage to the windscreen. Where a driver considers a vehicle to be unsafe it needs to be repaired immediately
Remember:
P
O
W
E
R
Petrol
Oil
Water
Electrics
Rubber (tyres, wipers)
The journey
Plan your route: motorways are the safest roads. Where possible, travelling at periods of peak traffic flow should be avoided. Journey times should take into account road types and road conditions
The environment
Drivers are to assess driving conditions and adjust accordingly. Journey times and routes should be rescheduled to take account of adverse weather. Check and take head of weather warnings before commencing a journey.
The driver
Drivers need to be fit to drive. Check any medication which might affect your driving. Drivers need to be competent. Driving licences must be valid. The driving licence must cover the vehicle to be driven. Good eyesight is vital for safe driving: your eyesight needs to be checked on a regular basis. If they are prescribed wear them. Drivers are required to be able to read a standard number plate at a distance of 20.5 m (67 feet). Drivers should not drive when fatigued.
Speeding increases the risk of road accidents. Employees should never drive faster than road or driving conditions allow. All speed limits must be obeyed. Do not drink and drive; do not take drugs and drive.
Mobile phones
Using a hand-held mobile phone, or similar device, while driving is against the law. Where possible turn it off when driving; if you cannot do this use a hands free device. This law is in place to improve driver safety.
For more information check out your company's road safety policy
Tuesday 18 March 2008
safetyadviser.co.uk win award!
safetyadviser.co.uk has been officially recognised as one of the best businesses in Wellingborough because "if you want an easy solution to a painful problem, Kevin is your man. Highly recommended."
thebestofwellingborough
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/wellingborough/health%20and%20safety%20specialists/1/the_best_of.aspx
www.safetyadviser.co.uk
Thursday 13 March 2008
HSE's shattered lives
For more information on the HSE's tips on preventing accidents at work
http://hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives/index.htm
www.safetyadviser.co.uk or www.she.ltd.uk
http://hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives/index.htm
www.safetyadviser.co.uk or www.she.ltd.uk
safe environment march 08
In this issue
Corporate Manslaughter
Environmental tips - unwanted mail
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will come into force on 6 April 2008, across the UK. The Act sets out a new offence for convicting an organisation where a gross failure in the way activities were managed or organised results in a person’s death. This will apply to a wide range of organisations across the public and private sectors. In England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the new offence will be called corporate manslaughter. It will be called corporate homicide in Scotland. Under a new approach, courts will look at management systems and practices across the organisation, providing a more effective means for prosecuting the worst corporate failures to manage health and safety properly.
Managing risks – not risk aversion
This is an opportunity for employers to think again about how risks are managed. The offence does not require organisations to comply with new regulatory standards. But organisations should ensure they are taking proper steps to meet current legal duties. From next April, the 2007 Act will mean that those who disregard the safety of others at work, with fatal consequences, are more vulnerable to very serious criminal charges.
Understanding the offence
An organisation will be guilty of the new offence if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the deceased.
The new test
Juries will consider how the fatal activity was managed or organised throughout the organisation, including any systems and processes for managing safety and how these were operated in practice.A substantial part of the failure within the organisation must have been at a senior level.Senior level means the people who make significant decisions about the organisation or substantial parts of it. This includes both centralised, headquarters functions as well as those in operational management roles.
Gross breach The organisation’s conduct must have fallen far below what could have been reasonably expected.Juries will have to take into account any health and safety breaches by the organisation – and how serious and dangerous those failures were.
Duty of care A duty of care exists for example in respect of the systems of work and equipment used by employees, the condition of worksites and other premises occupied by an organisation and in relation to products or services supplied to customers.The Act does not create new duties – they are already owed in the civil law of negligence and the new offence is based on these.
Penalties An organisation guilty of the offence will be liable to an unlimited fine. The Act also provides for courts to impose a publicity order, requiring the organisation to publicise details of its conviction and fine. This will be commenced at a later date when sentencing guidelines are available (expected in autumn 2008). Courts may also require an organisation to take steps to address the failures behind the death (a remedial order).
Exemptions The offence does not apply to certain public and government functions whose management involve wider questions of public policy and are already subject to other forms of accountability.For example, it does not apply to strategic decisions about the spending of public money or military operations. Other functions, such as policing, the response of the emergency services, child protection and statutory inspection are also exempt, other than where organisations owe responsibilities to employees or for the premises they occupy.The new offence will apply to the management of custody, but this will come into force at a later date.
DPP consent
In England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, the consent of the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions is needed before a case of corporate manslaughter can be taken to court.Further information about this can be obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service (www.cps.gov.uk) or the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (www.ppsni.gov.uk)In Scotland, all prosecutions are initiated by the Procurator Fiscal.
Who is covered by the new offence? The offence applies to all companies and other corporate bodies, operating in the UK, in the private, public and third sectors. It also applies to partnerships (and to trade unions and employers’ associations) if they are an employer, as well as to Government departments and police forces.
What do organisations need to do to comply with the law? All employers must already comply with health and safety legislation and the Act does not affect those requirements. However, the introduction of the new offence is an opportunity for employers to satisfy themselves that systems and processes for managing health and safety are adequate.
For guidance on health and safety duties and how to meet them, employers should contact the relevant regulatory authority.
Can directors, senior managers or other individuals be prosecuted for the offence? No. The offence is aimed at cases where management failures lie across an organisation and it is the organisation itself that will face prosecution. However, individuals can already be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter/culpable homicide and for health and safety offences. The Act does not change this and prosecutions against individuals will continue to be taken where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so
Can the offence be avoided by senior managers delegating responsibility for health and safety? No. Failures by senior managers to manage health and safety adequately, including through inappropriate delegation of health and safety matters, will leave organisations vulnerable to corporate manslaughter/homicide charges.
Senior managers should ensure they and their organisation are complying with current health and safety laws. New guidance “Leading health and safety at work – Leadership Actions for Directors and Board Members” is being drawn up jointly by the Institute of Directors and the Health and Safety Commission, and will be published UK-wide later this year
What will happen in practice
Employers have a legal duty to report certain incidents at work, including work-related deaths.
The police will lead an investigation if a criminal offence (other than under health and safety law) is suspected. They will work in partnership with the HSE, local authority or other regulatory authority.
The Government expects that cases of corporate manslaughter/homicide following a death at work will be rare as the new offence is intended to cover only the worst instances of failure across an organisation to manage health and safety properly.Cases of corporate manslaughter will be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in England Wales and Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. Corporate homicide cases will be prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal in Scotland.Health and safety charges may be brought at the same time as a prosecution for the new offence, as well as in cases where it is not prosecuted.
Further information
The full text of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is available on the Office of Public Sector Information website: www.opsi.gov.uk.
Further guidance on the offence, including background information, is available on the websites of the Ministry of Justice (www.justice.gov.uk) and Northern Ireland Office (www.nio.gov.uk)Guidance on health and safety at work is available from the Health and Safety Executive (www.hse.gov.uk) and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (www.hseni.gov.uk).
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
Environmental Tip of the Month
Unwanted mail
By altering one thing at a time you can make a difference! Reduce unwanted junk mail by joining the Mailing Preference Service.
For more information check out the blog:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
Check out our new listing on "the best of Wellingborough":
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/wellingborough
Kevin Jones
www.safetyadviser.co.uk or www.she.ltd.uk
kevin.jones@safetyadviser.co.uk
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will come into force on 6 April 2008, across the UK. The Act sets out a new offence for convicting an organisation where a gross failure in the way activities were managed or organised results in a person’s death. This will apply to a wide range of organisations across the public and private sectors. In England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the new offence will be called corporate manslaughter. It will be called corporate homicide in Scotland. Under a new approach, courts will look at management systems and practices across the organisation, providing a more effective means for prosecuting the worst corporate failures to manage health and safety properly.
Managing risks – not risk aversion
This is an opportunity for employers to think again about how risks are managed. The offence does not require organisations to comply with new regulatory standards. But organisations should ensure they are taking proper steps to meet current legal duties. From next April, the 2007 Act will mean that those who disregard the safety of others at work, with fatal consequences, are more vulnerable to very serious criminal charges.
Understanding the offence
An organisation will be guilty of the new offence if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the deceased.
The new test
Juries will consider how the fatal activity was managed or organised throughout the organisation, including any systems and processes for managing safety and how these were operated in practice.A substantial part of the failure within the organisation must have been at a senior level.Senior level means the people who make significant decisions about the organisation or substantial parts of it. This includes both centralised, headquarters functions as well as those in operational management roles.
Gross breach The organisation’s conduct must have fallen far below what could have been reasonably expected.Juries will have to take into account any health and safety breaches by the organisation – and how serious and dangerous those failures were.
Duty of care A duty of care exists for example in respect of the systems of work and equipment used by employees, the condition of worksites and other premises occupied by an organisation and in relation to products or services supplied to customers.The Act does not create new duties – they are already owed in the civil law of negligence and the new offence is based on these.
Penalties An organisation guilty of the offence will be liable to an unlimited fine. The Act also provides for courts to impose a publicity order, requiring the organisation to publicise details of its conviction and fine. This will be commenced at a later date when sentencing guidelines are available (expected in autumn 2008). Courts may also require an organisation to take steps to address the failures behind the death (a remedial order).
Exemptions The offence does not apply to certain public and government functions whose management involve wider questions of public policy and are already subject to other forms of accountability.For example, it does not apply to strategic decisions about the spending of public money or military operations. Other functions, such as policing, the response of the emergency services, child protection and statutory inspection are also exempt, other than where organisations owe responsibilities to employees or for the premises they occupy.The new offence will apply to the management of custody, but this will come into force at a later date.
DPP consent
In England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, the consent of the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions is needed before a case of corporate manslaughter can be taken to court.Further information about this can be obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service (www.cps.gov.uk) or the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (www.ppsni.gov.uk)In Scotland, all prosecutions are initiated by the Procurator Fiscal.
Who is covered by the new offence? The offence applies to all companies and other corporate bodies, operating in the UK, in the private, public and third sectors. It also applies to partnerships (and to trade unions and employers’ associations) if they are an employer, as well as to Government departments and police forces.
What do organisations need to do to comply with the law? All employers must already comply with health and safety legislation and the Act does not affect those requirements. However, the introduction of the new offence is an opportunity for employers to satisfy themselves that systems and processes for managing health and safety are adequate.
For guidance on health and safety duties and how to meet them, employers should contact the relevant regulatory authority.
Can directors, senior managers or other individuals be prosecuted for the offence? No. The offence is aimed at cases where management failures lie across an organisation and it is the organisation itself that will face prosecution. However, individuals can already be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter/culpable homicide and for health and safety offences. The Act does not change this and prosecutions against individuals will continue to be taken where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so
Can the offence be avoided by senior managers delegating responsibility for health and safety? No. Failures by senior managers to manage health and safety adequately, including through inappropriate delegation of health and safety matters, will leave organisations vulnerable to corporate manslaughter/homicide charges.
Senior managers should ensure they and their organisation are complying with current health and safety laws. New guidance “Leading health and safety at work – Leadership Actions for Directors and Board Members” is being drawn up jointly by the Institute of Directors and the Health and Safety Commission, and will be published UK-wide later this year
What will happen in practice
Employers have a legal duty to report certain incidents at work, including work-related deaths.
The police will lead an investigation if a criminal offence (other than under health and safety law) is suspected. They will work in partnership with the HSE, local authority or other regulatory authority.
The Government expects that cases of corporate manslaughter/homicide following a death at work will be rare as the new offence is intended to cover only the worst instances of failure across an organisation to manage health and safety properly.Cases of corporate manslaughter will be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in England Wales and Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. Corporate homicide cases will be prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal in Scotland.Health and safety charges may be brought at the same time as a prosecution for the new offence, as well as in cases where it is not prosecuted.
Further information
The full text of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is available on the Office of Public Sector Information website: www.opsi.gov.uk.
Further guidance on the offence, including background information, is available on the websites of the Ministry of Justice (www.justice.gov.uk) and Northern Ireland Office (www.nio.gov.uk)Guidance on health and safety at work is available from the Health and Safety Executive (www.hse.gov.uk) and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (www.hseni.gov.uk).
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
Environmental Tip of the Month
Unwanted mail
By altering one thing at a time you can make a difference! Reduce unwanted junk mail by joining the Mailing Preference Service.
For more information check out the blog:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
Check out our new listing on "the best of Wellingborough":
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/wellingborough
Kevin Jones
www.safetyadviser.co.uk or www.she.ltd.uk
kevin.jones@safetyadviser.co.uk
Unwanted mail
Environmental Tip of the Month - Unwanted mail
By altering one thing at a time you can make a difference!
Reduce unwanted junk mail by joining the Mailing Preference Service.
For more information check out the blog:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
Check out our new listing on "the best of Wellingborough":
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/wellingborough
www.safetyadviser.co.uk
By altering one thing at a time you can make a difference!
Reduce unwanted junk mail by joining the Mailing Preference Service.
For more information check out the blog:
http://safetyadviser.blogspot.com/
Check out our new listing on "the best of Wellingborough":
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/wellingborough
www.safetyadviser.co.uk
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