safety newsletter

Welcome to this month's safety newsletter. The idea of these newsletters is to raise safety awareness and to get you involved. This month’s topic is about

The health and safety law poster and leaflet

All companies must display the Health and Safety Executive HSE’s health and safety law poster if they employ anyone. Or they can give employees a leaflet called ‘Health and safety law: What you should know [65KB] [1]’ . The poster includes basic health and safety information and lets people know who is responsible for health and safety in your workplace. Employers must display the poster where workers can easily read it, and it must be in a readable condition. Companies must also include some contact details, for example of your local enforcing authority.

The Health and Safety Law Poster contains three sections that need to be completed. These are:

Employee Representative(s) This box is for a representative that has been appointed/elected by the employees, either under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee regulations 1977( if the work place has a trade union) or the Consultation with Employee Regulations 1996, (if there is no union represented). If there is no one who has been appointed/elected by the employees and the employer consults directly with the employees, then this box is left blank.

Management Representative This box is for the person appointed by the employer for health and safety, (i.e. health and safety officer). The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 7 states that "Every employer shall, appoint one of more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he need to take to comply with the requirements imposed upon him by the regulations". Ultimately this could be the employer themselves, depending on the size and structure of the business, and if the employer has the relevant training and experience.

Enforcing Authority The enforcing authority for health and safety depends on the type of business you conduct. In deciding who is your enforcing authority, a company needs to consider the type of workplace individuals are employed in. The HSE enforce over premises such as factories, building sites, mines, farms, fairgrounds, quarries, railways, chemical plant, offshore and nuclear installations, schools and hospitals. The Local Authority enforce over premises such as retailing, some warehouses, most offices, hotels and catering, sports, leisure, consumer services and places of worship. Details of your local authority can be found in your local telephone directory or we can provide the telephone number if you can tell us in which council area you are located. Employment Medical Advisory Service (EMAS) EMAS departments are located at local HSE offices, although there are some small area offices without one.

HSE’s myth of the month
Health and safety rules take the adventure out of playgrounds The reality: We're all for playgrounds being exciting and challenging places. Children should have fun in them, get fit, develop social skills and learn how to handle risks. What’s important is to strike the right balance - protecting children from harm while allowing them the freedom to develop independence and risk awareness. Exciting and challenging playgrounds do this, poorly maintained or badly designed ones don't. Health and safety laws don’t stop children having fun but ill-considered and overprotective actions do.

Related documents/ further reading:
‘Health and safety law: What you should know [65KB] [1]’
Download the poster at http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/mar09.pdf

www.she.ltd.uk

safe environment

In this issue
stress - tips on how to reduce it
poor advice and warning to business
exhibition
natural england
environmental tip of the month

Stress
If only reducing stress was as simple as popping bubble wrap, or spotting it as easy as studying someone's doodles or handwriting. However, there are effective ways to spot and reduce stress in the workplace.The HSE's website helps employees, HR staff and Board Directors discover effective, lasting answers to workplace stress - a problem that costs organisations with 500 employees around 250 working days a year. How many days are lost in your company? For more information follow the link to the HSE's website.

Poor Advice
A quarry owner and its safety consultant have been fined for failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment to protect employees working with hazardous substances. Read the full SHP article here link.

Warning!!
This is a warning to all Companies. Ensure your Environmental/ Quality/ Health and Safety Standards are accredited by UKAS. If they are not they may be of poor quality. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators. Check out UKAS by following the link.

Exhibition
We are exhibiting again... Come and meet us at the Showcase Market & Sell "Combat the recession and find new markets….." on Monday the 30th March 2009 at the Kettering Conference Centre, Thurston Drive, Kettering Northants, NN15 6PB. Exhibition registration for this event begins at 9:00am. We look forward to seeing you there ;-).

Environmental - Natural England
Natural England is an independent public body whose purpose is to protect and improve England’s natural environment and encourage people to enjoy and get involved in their surroundings. There broad aim is to create a better natural environment that covers all of urban, country and coastal landscapes, along with all of the animals, plants and other organisms that live with us. Natural England provide a wide range of information for owners and occupiers of Sites of Special Scientific Interest to assist in the conservation and enhancement of these nationally important sites. For more information follow the link.

Environmental tip of the month
Make a point of switching off your computer screen each time you leave your desk, especially for longer periods such as your lunchbreak. A computer in "screensaver" mode uses almost as much energy as it does when it's being used. Even the most profound/ or profane scrolling message doesn't add much to office life!

For further guaranteed friendly and professional advice on safety health and environmental issues contact us at info@she.ltd.uk or phone 0845 522049 or visit our website at www.she.ltd.uk.

COMBAT THE RECESSION AND FIND NEW MARKETS…..

We are exhibiting again... Come and meet us at the

Showcase Market & Sell "COMBAT THE RECESSION AND FIND NEW MARKETS….."
On Monday 30th March 2009

Kettering Conference Centre
Thurston Drive
Kettering Northants
NN15 6PB

Exhibition registration for this event will begin at 9:00am.

Look forward to seeing you there ;-)

www.she.ltd.uk

Poor advice lands consultant in dock

A quarry owner and its safety consultant have been fined for failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment to protect employees working with hazardous substances.


Read the full SHP article here http://www.shponline.co.uk/article.asp?pagename=incourt&article_id=8507

www.she.ltd.uk