Category Archives: Health and Safety

1.  When developing and writing down safety procedures, ensure that they are clear and applicable to the task. Use the findings of your risk assessments as the basis for determining what controls are needed, how they should be implemented and when. Ensure that the correct planning and coordination of tasks takes place before any work starts.
2. Check before work starts that all workers understand the safety procedures and what is required of them. Simple misunderstandings can have major repercussions when heavy or dangerous machinery is in use, for example.
3. Regularly review your safe systems of work to check that they are still current and applicable. Also check all procedures after an accident or near miss, to see if changes need to be made to your processes.
4. Make sure that all work is supervised by a competent person who has knowledge of the task and a clear understanding of the safety procedures to be followed.
5. Give the right level of training to workers in relation to their roles and the tasks they need to perform. Check that contractors know about the safety procedures, too, and that they understand them.

Always ensure employees and contractors fully understand the companies policies and procedures.

Contact Walker Health and Safety Services for further advice.

Make sure you have the necessary systems in place to protect visitors and others to your premises.

Tips to Help Protect the Health and Safety of Visitors to Your Premises

1. Walk your site regularly to determine where your hazards are, as part of your risk assessment process. Determine how those new to your premises could be hurt, be it from coming into contact with electricity, falling into pot holes or being in the path of workplace transport. Be sure to consider both indoor and outdoor risks.
2. Think about the controls needed to prevent or reduce the risk. Cover up holes and gaps, and put signage up to warn of hazards. Use barriers to segregate pedestrians from vehicles, and ensure there are safe, designated walking routes to buildings from car parks.
3. Communicate known risks by way of induction, or where appropriate, by verbal discussion.
4. Ensure that visitors are accompanied at all times, and that they sign in and out so that you are aware of who is on the premises and when they subsequently leave.
5. Ensure that any work undertaken by the visitor is properly supervised, and that you have identified any additional risks posed to others by the visitor’s work activities.

Contact Walker Health and Safety Services Limited for advice.

Recent items in the media concerning the use of mobile phones while stuck in traffic and the use of satellite navigation (satnav) apps on mobile telephones in vehicles has revealed a degree of uncertainty and inconsistency over the law and its application. There have been reports that in some parts of the country, drivers are being convicted, or at least warned, for just touching the device while driving and the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) advice admits that there has been debate about exactly what “use” means.

The law

Regulation 110 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 prohibits a person from driving, or causing or permitting another to drive, a motor vehicle on the road while using a hand-held mobile telephone or other hand-held devices of a kind specified. This regulation was added by the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2003 and extends to those supervising provisional licence holders while they are driving on the road. The regulation does not apply to devices built into the vehicle or secured in a cradle.

Tips to Make Sure that Stacking Activities Are Carried Out Safely

1. Do a risk assessment to assess the hazards involved in the stacking and unstacking of loads. Consider how workers could be hurt if loads were to fall on them.
2. Look at industry guidance on the correct method of stacking for your type of loads, and devise a suitable stacking system for your premises.
3. Train employees on how to safely stack loads, including the means of lifting the items into place and the gradients to be used. Remember that unstable items should slope backwards at the top to stop them slipping forwards.
4. Make sure that the racking and/or pallets used are suitable for the type and weight of the items they hold.
5. If there is a risk of items falling, introduce zoned areas with restricted access to prevent people being in the vicinity of the stacked items. An exclusion zone can be sectioned off by barriers, or if this is not possible by painting a zoned area onto the ground.
6. Inform workers about the maximum heights that stacks can reach, and undertake regular checks to ensure that these measurements have not been exceeded.

If proper stacking procedures are not designed and implemented then serious accidents can occur if loads fall. Make sure this does not happen on your premises.

Contact Walker Health and Safety Services Limited if you require advice.