Construction Infonet is a free e-Bulletin from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to provide a regular update on health and safety issues for all in the construction industry.
HSE Construction Division has created some new Busy Builder leaflets - containing simple, straightforward guidance for those who run small construction sites. The leaflets also show real examples of good and unacceptable practice on site.
Further information for small sites - Are you a smaller builder?
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR)
As of 6 April 2012, the reporting requirement in RIDDOR for over-three-day injuries has changed. The trigger point has increased 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 has also increased to 15 days from the day of the accident.
A new leaflet Reporting accidents and incidents at work explains the change.
The occupational health provision on the Olympic Park and Village has been recognised by the construction industry and beyond as an example of good practice, and one of the best implemented on any major construction project in the UK.
The research report Occupational Health Provision on the Olympic Park and Athletes’ Village sets out how the onsite occupational health team adopted a ‘health like safety’ approach, encouraging contractors to see health risk management as part of their day-to-day activities, and something that was simple to integrate with existing safety management.
See also – Leadership and Worker Involvement Toolkit
HSE Guidance - Fire Safety in Construction (HSG 168) includes a table in Appendix 3 showing the precautions that are appropriate for all sites and additional requirements for higher fire risk projects. There is an error in the text of this table under the ‘Hot works’ section.
Hot works
The published version of HSG 168 will be changed to take account of this revision at the next re-print.
Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.
11 April 2012 – Seven construction workers were lucky to survive when more than 250 tonnes of wet concrete collapsed at Liverpool John Moores University. Two companies have been fined a total of £100,000 and over £70,000 in costs for putting workers’ lives at risk
11 April 2012 - A former scaffolding company director has been fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000 after two employees were injured in a scaffold collapse.
A 26-year-old man working fractured his left ankle and right heel as he jumped six metres from a scaffold tower at student accommodation as it fell to the ground. A second employee, 46, was working at a height of around 10 metres. He managed to hang on to the scaffold as it fell, crashing into the building opposite.
Further information
2 April 2012 - A Sheffield man is lucky to be alive after suffering multiple injuries when he fell three metres from the top of a new staircase that had been left without a handrail by a local builder during refurbishment work at his home. The builder was fined £5,000 with costs of £4,000.
19 April 2012 - A Hertfordshire building company has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £21,000 for injuring a member of the public. The woman was waiting for a bus when she was hit by a piece of machinery being lifted to the fifth floor of a nearby office block.
27 April 2012 - A family was exposed to deadly carbon monoxide fumes after building work on a chimney caused a blockage in a flue.The builder was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.
Further information
Further information
3 April 2012 - The director of a Cardiff construction firm has been fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,027 for failing to take measures to ensure his workers’ safety while working at height.
4 April 2012 – A building firm from Stratford-upon-Avon has been fined £12,000 after a worker suffered severe injuries when he fell from a damaged scaffolding plank.The firm was also ordered to pay £3,353 costs.
11 April 2012 – A construction worker defied death after falling four metres from the cage of a 20-tonnes cherry-picker into the path of a moving bus, which then pushed him another 15 metres along the Euston Road, London. National construction firm fined a total of £12,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £16,459.70
26 April 2012 – A construction company has been fined £20,000 and was ordered to pay £5,940 in costs for continuing unsafe working practices at a site in Upper Norwood, Croydon. They had repeatedly ignoring safety warnings about dangerous scaffolding, people working unsafely at height, fire-related hazards and dangerous electrical equipment.
Further information
Improve the health and safety of your business by attending a health and safety event near you. Most of the Working Well Together (WWT) events we list are FREE and all provide an opportunity to meet like-minded people, see interesting new equipment and get confidential advice.
Find your nearest WWT Group and get involved.
Places are available at the following Working Well Together (WWT) events.
Plus many more WWT eventsover the forthcoming year
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