MESH Consultant - All the latest health & safety news from Mesh Consultants

The HSE has planned two inspection blitzes for Kent based businesses over the next 6 months. Around 50-60 warranted inspectors will be involved we believe. 

The HSE Info Line and Incident Line are discontinued during this month. At the same time the local HSE contact numbers will be withdrawn from the HSE website. 

July NEBOSH results have yielded another perfect 100% for MESH candidates. The group received 5 Distinctions and 2 Credits. 

One candidate expressed that  I have taken a lot from the course, more than can be demonstrated in the examinations.

An external fire risk assessor and a hotel manager have both been jailed for eight months for fire safety offences.

The young trainee fell 20ft from a raised cage on a moving forklift truck and was seriously injured. CCTV video footage of the incident can be found on-line. 

The provisional figure for the number of workers fatally injured in 2010/11 is 171, and corresponds to a rate of fatal injury of 0.6 per 100 000 workers.  

Falling foul of fire safety legislation can result in hefty fines, often in cases where there has been no serious injury or loss if life.

The man who was killed when refilling a gas cylinder for a London pub was found not to have received sufficient training.

A recent has has again highlighted the importance of ensuring the need to ensure competent health and safety advice is sought. 

The consultation exercise on the proposal to recover HSE costs where a material breach has been identified starts in July 2011.

Relevant costs to get the business back to compliance will be charged.

A food manufacturer has been fined after a cleaner lost two fingers in a potato processing machine at its Telford site. 

Over 200 HSE staff opted to take voluntary early release in February 2011 it has been identified. 

The announcement was made a day after the consultation on amending RIDDOR was closed.

 The last NEBOSH course once again provided excellent pass results for MESH candidates.

Positive feedback is a great indicator that we are getting it right.

New research from NEBOSH suggests that anyone looking for a health and safety job without suitable qualifications “need not apply.”

 An Italian court has sentenced six executives of an Italian steelworks to lengthy prison sentences after a fire in 2007 killed seven workers.

The chief executive of ThyssenKrupps in Italy, Harald Espenhahn, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced last month to 16 ½ years in prison, while five other officials were sentenced to terms up to 13 ½ years, according to Associated Press.

Great feedback from our training candidates on NEBOSH and IOSH courses is something we have become used to. Probably linked to our exceptionally high success rates.

The plan to charge enforcement costs to wrong doers have been welcomed by IOSH.

The council was fined for its failure to take proper care of adults with learning difficulties

The council pleaded guilty and was fined £50,000 with £23,670 costs.

A metal engineering company Metaltech Precision Ltd, has been fined after one of its workers suffered serious injuries when a forklift truck tipped over trapping his leg under the load.

Metaltech Precision Ltd pleaded guilty and was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £4,940 in costs. 

 A Hertfordshire-based electrical company has been fined £120,000 after a man was left paralysed when he was knocked from a scissor lift.

Skanska Rashleigh Weatherfoil Ltd admitted the charges and was fined a total of £120,000 with full costs of £81,927.

The HSE has issued the fatal injury stats for the first 9 months of the 2010/11 period.

 MESH were asked by Employment Relations Solicitors to present at their April breakfast meeting forum.

The machine supplied by the parent company was unguarded resulting in a worker losing part of his arm. 

MESH pass rates for NEBOSH National General Certificate have consistently exceeded the National average. The National pass rate is generally between 60-70%. 

A residential landlord has been found guilty of fire safety breaches, following a fire where his tenants were forced to flee for their lives. 

The IOSH Managing Safely course scheduled between 17 - 20th May in Docklands is closed for further bookings.

The pipe manufacturing company, Polypipe pleaded guilty to breaching the work at height regulations. 

The Government has announced that plans for a reduction of 11,000 inspections per year have been approved by the DWP. 

A property maintenance company has been found guilty of COSHH failures after plumber receives acid burns. 

The law on age and retirement is changing. The Government is phasing out the default retirement age (DRA) from April 2011. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR) is now open to the public and ready for businesses to use.

Biffa has been fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs after a fatal accident. 

The prosecution came  after Safety Train UK Ltd failed to implement safe work at height practices during a safety demonstration; leading to a woman falling 12 feet. 

We are sometimes asked how we can be so confident in our NEBOSH General Certificate tutorial team. 

A manufacturing firm has been prosecuted after health and safety failures at its Northumberland premises. 

The company was fined £20,000 as a result.

Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has become the first company to be convicted of the new offence of corporate manslaughter.

A fine of £385,000 was imposed, payable over  10 years.

 The research shows the average fine for a fatality in 2005 was just under £30,000.

Since the new sentencing guidelines were issued in 2010 the average fine has risen to just over £114,000.

A 50 year old man was fatally injured whilst carrying out repairs on a cut and crease machine.

The machine was switched on by an operator who was not aware the man was inside the machine working.

 At MESH we have decided to apply to join the register and have entered our applications to the HSE; but will this mean that potential clients will use the register as a guide to determine if they are employing competent consultants?

 A factory worker received serious hand injuries after his fingers touched a rotating blade when clearing debris from a large circular saw.

 The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR) has been set up by a number of professional bodies representing general safety and occupational health consultants across the UK, with support from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).  It is designed to help businesses find well-qualified and experienced consultants able to give good quality advice.

OSHCR registration is voluntary and open to individuals who provide commercial advice on general health and sa

Even if the law did not demand that you did so, you probably wish to ensure that your premises are safe for one and all and that your business is complaint with the latest health, safety and fire regulations.

 The results don`t lie says Managing Director Martin Moy; this is another tremendous results.

The results from our October exam produced another Distinction and three Credit passes.

Most businesses are obliged to have proof that they have carried out regular fire, and health and safety checks under UK law. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations typically require that you carry out regular fire risk assessments.

 This is according to three research reports recently released. The reports bring into sharp focus fears over Lord Youngs health & safety proposals, cuts to the HSE budget and the Government welfare reforms.

If you think that fire risk assessments are perhaps a rather bureaucratic requirement, then you couldn't be more wrong. Here are a few points worth thinking about.

It is sometimes said that fire can strike without warning.  That may well be true, however, sometimes a situation which constitutes a high fire risk can be identified and action taken to help prevent a disaster.  That is what fire assessment is all about.

 The company failed to assess the risk to its workers using a highly corrosive chemical to clean an air-conditioning system.

The core principle of a fire audit is extremely simple. It is essentially based on the generally accepted truth that sometimes you can be too close to events to be able to objectively analyse them.