Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new cost recovery scheme, with the aim of recovering the costs of inspecting, investigating and taking enforcement action against businesses that break health and safety laws.

Known as Fee for Intervention (FFI), the scheme began to operate on 1st October and will enable the HSE to recover costs where there has been a material breach of health and safety law.

A material breach is where a business or organisation has broken the law and the inspector judges it serious enough to notify them in writing.

An Essex firm has been prosecuted after one of its employees suffered life-changing injuries when he fell from a stepladder while spray-painting a lorry.

The 51-year-old man shattered his left shoulder and collar bone, broke several ribs and received a deep cut to his head in the fall.  

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found that the same employee had fallen off a stepladder just one month before the incident, but no action had been taken to improve safety at the site.

Reducing health risks in the field of nanotechnology is the aim of a new initiative released by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

IOSH co-commissioned the UK NanoSafety Partnership Group to produce the first-ever health and safety guidance for working with nanomaterials in research and development.

Nanotechnologies offer potentially huge benefits to society, industry, the environment and health. The guide looks at an array of topics, including risk management, toxicology, exposure control and health surveillance.

A string of quad bike fatalities in Great Britain has prompted experts to call for more riders to wear safety helmets.

Members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health’s (IOSH) Rural Industries Group issued a stark warning to those working with quad bikes who are reluctant to wear head protection.

Alan Plom, from the IOSH Rural Industries Group, said: “The majority of those killed riding all terrain vehicles were not wearing a helmet at the time. Riders should always wear suitable head protection, it could mean the difference between life and death – it’s that simple.”

Shops, offices, pubs and clubs will no longer face health and safety inspections, and over 3,000 regulations will be scrapped or overhauled in a radical plan by the Government to curb red tape and boost British business growth.

From April 2013, the Government intends to introduce binding new rules on both the Health & Safety Executive and on local authorities, that will exempt hundreds of thousands of businesses from regular health & safety inspections.

In future, businesses will only face health and safety inspections if they are operating in higher risk areas such as construction, or if they have an incident or a track record of poor performance.