Crown Professional Safety Management, Health and Safety Consultants

Every year when we are fortunate enough (or unfortunate, depending on your point of view) to have anything like a summer, the same question always gets asked…….At what temperature are we allowed to go home? The simple answer is, there is no specified upper temperature which is deemed too hot to work. The reason for this is because some industries will have high temperatures due to activities being undertaken, such as foundries or bakeries. The Workplace (Health, Safety and W

Data released by Kensington and Chelsea Council under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act seems to show that Grenfell Tower had not been checked for fire safety for 18 months. Grenfell tower is managed by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), who also manage another 81 blocks. It appears that the last fire risk assessment for the Grenfell Tower building, took place in December 2015. This is not the first high rise block managed by this organisation t

In October 2012 the HSE Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme was introduced. The scheme is the HSE’s cost recovery scheme which permits the HSE to seek recovery of its costs for inspection/investigation from companies who are not compliant with health and safety laws. Since the start of the scheme, fees have increased by just over 40% with the average cost of an invoice issued under FFI being in excess of £700. The FFI was introduced because the HSE believes that any business br

In this day and age there is a voluminous amount of health and safety legislation intending to safeguard people from injury and it is unfortunate that interpretation of this legislation is sometimes totally misunderstood by many, including jobsworths in the safety profession who have a “Why we can’t do” attitude rather than the “How we can do” attitude. Anything is possible, if you really want something to happen and you have the vision and the will – it really is not that d

In July 2015, Stanley May, aged 74, visited the Truro branch of the Co-op supermarket. Mr May slipped on water leaking from a faulty sandwich chiller unit, causing him to fall, hitting his head on the floor, and unfortunately passed away two days later as a result of the head injury Cornwall Council who brought the prosecution informed Truro Crown Court that the chiller had been faulty for forty four hours but customers had not taken any steps to keep customers away from the

The minimum requirements for a first aid box have recently been updated in line with BS8599‐1. The main changes are the addition of the following items to be included in the first aid box : · Sterile Finger Dressings · Foil Blanket (Emergency) · Burn Dressing and/or Cooling Gel · First Aid Shears (capable of cutting though clothing) · Conforming Bandage Note:- A conforming bandage is a bandage designed to mould itself to the shape of the area where it is applied. This he

Are you responsible for risk assessments in your workplace, don’t forget that they need reviewing regularly and updating if necessary. Few workplaces will remain the same. Sooner or later, there will be new equipment, substances and procedures that could have introduced new hazards. It therefore makes sense to review what is happening in the workplace on an ongoing basis, look at your risk assessments again and ask yourself:- Have there been any significant changes? Are ther