What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls

NICK PATIENCE CMIOSH

NICK PATIENCE SAFETY AND TRAINING LTD

About me

Copyright Notice

• ‘Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence’.

• Other sources are acknowledged

Overview

• Who will they visit?• HSE’s published plans for 2019-2020

• Sector Plans

• HSE’s advice for Local Authority plans for 2019-2020

• Fee for Intervention

• Enforcement Decision making

• Investigations

Targeted Inspection

• in sectors which have the most serious risks

• where there is information and intelligence that health and safety is a significant concern, such as:

• previous performance

• concerns raised by workers, the public or others

• incident investigations

• reports of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences

HSE planning

• Direct limited resource

• Planning for interventions other than inspection

• Sector Plans• 19 plans from Agriculture to Waste

• Health Priority Plans• Occupational Lung Disease• Musculoskeletal Disorders• Work related Stress

• Small Business

Construction - Aims

• Embedding the principles of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM)

• Focusing on a reduction in the cases of occupational lung disease, MSDs and work-related stress

• Supporting small businesses to achieve improved risk management and control

Construction - Inspection

• directing inspection and enforcement at:• those failing to manage and control risks, focusing on

health risks,

• refurbishment activity, and

• licensed asbestos removal;

• visiting targeted dutyholders to encourage self-assessment and progressive development of their health risk management.

ManufacturingSector Health topic When

Woodworking Wood Dust April - June

Food manufacture Flour Dust and musculoskeletal disorders

July - September

Molten Metals Respirable Crystalline Silica

October - December

Fabricated metals Welding fume, MWF January - March

Rubber Rubber Fume January - March

Local Authority National Priorities

• Construction – Duty to manage asbestos

• Falls from height

• RCS

• Visitor attractions – animal contact

• Inflatable amusement devices

• Beverage gases

• Gas safety in catering

• Welfare for delivery drivers

• Access to large commercial bins by the public

LA - Topics – proactive inspection

• Legionella – cooling towers evaporative condensers

• LPG at camping /caravan parks

• Open farms/petting zoos

• High volume warehousing/distribution –workplace transport

• Fall from height/ amputations/crush injuries-industrial retail/wholesale premises

Proactive inspection - continued

• Noise – steel stockholders

• RCS – gravestones/worktops

• Flour dust – instore bakeries

• MSDs - residential care

• Manual handling – warehousing/wholesale/distribution

• Crowd Management – live events/sports/festivals

• CO poisoning - commercial catering

• Violence – Cash handling/lone workers

• Professional firework displays.

MEC and MPMC

• Matters of evident concern• create a risk of serious personal injury or ill-

health and which are observed (i.e. self-evident) or brought to the attention of the inspector.

• Matters of Potential Major Concern• realistic potential to cause either multiple

fatalities or multiple cases of acute or chronic ill-health.

Powers of Inspectors

• Factories Act

• Section 20 of HSWA

• Entry at any time?

• Regulator’s Code – no inspection without a reason

• Power of persuasion

Fee for intervention

• Material Breach of health and safety law

• It currently costs £154 an hour

Decision Making

• Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS)

• The Enforcement Management Model (EMM)

EMM - Overview

EXAMPLE - assume no guard and smaller drill

OptionsNo actionVerbal adviceWritten advice NoCProhibition NoticeImprovement NoticeProsecution

Image by gussencion from Pixabay

EXAMPLE

Actual risk – minor injury possible

Benchmark – minor injury remote

Therefore – nominal risk gap

• Guarding of drills is an established standard – nominal risk gap – verbal warning only (a breach of PUWER Reg 11 – but not a material breach for FFI purposes)

Larger Drill

If drill is larger –or there is some other factor which suggests that the actual risk here is greater than previously described – the following could apply

Image by gussencion from Pixabay

Actual risk – significant injury possible

Benchmark – significant injury remote

Therefore – moderate risk gap

Guarding of drills is an established standard – moderate risk gap – letter /NoC form (a breach of PUWER Reg 11 – possibly a material breach for FFI purposes)

The inspector will work through all duty holder factors for a letter.The key one here is the final box.

If the inspector is satisfied the duty holder can and will comply – the EMM indicates verbal warning and therefore this is not a material breach. Some confidence in dutyholder the letter/NoC stands. However - if little or no confidence – an Improvement Notice is indicated. Two further checks are made – strategic factors and an enforcement conclusion review (not illustrated).

INVESTIGATIONS – selection criteria• All work-related accidents which result in the

death of any person, including non-workers.

• All work-related accidents resulting in a “Specified Injury” [RIDDOR Reg. 4(1)] to any person, including non-workers, that meet any of the following conditions:

• Serious multiple fractures (more than one bone, not including wrist or ankle);

• All amputations other than amputation of digit(s) above the first joint (e.g. fingertip);

• Permanent blinding in one or both eyes;

INVESTIGATIONS - selection• Crush injuries leading to internal organ damage, e.g.

ruptured spleen;

• Any burn injury (including scalding) which covers more than 10% of the surface area of the body or causes significant damage to the eyes, respiratory system or vital organs;

• Any degree of scalping requiring hospital treatment;

• Loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia;

• Any injury arising from working in an enclosed space which leads to hypothermia or heat induced illness, or requires resuscitation or hospital admittance for more than 24 hours.

INVESTIGATIONS - selection

• All reports of cases of occupational disease which are reportable under RIDDOR Regulations 8 – 10

• Other reports of cases of occupational disease with the potential to cause death or a “serious health effect” as defined in EMM, and which arise from working practices that are likely to be ongoing at the time the report is made.

INVESTIGATIONS - selection

• Incidents which indicate a likelihood of a serious breach of health and safety law:

• Major hazard precursor events:

Questions?

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•nick@npsat.co.uk