Health and Safety Consultants

Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), blames the media for the lack of school trips and practical science lessons.  She believes that the media has planted a misplaced fear about potentially risky activities because of the way they report certain tragic incidents. Around half of the schools in the UK are wary of organising school trips and practical lessons because of increased fears over bureaucracy.

“The general risk aversion and propensity to look for others to blame is bound to have an effect on teachers, if parents have unrealistic expectations of what teachers can reasonably do,” she said.

“I have no doubt there’s a culture that taking a trip is hard, but it’s not as complicated as they think it is. I’m not unsympathetic, and we want to help make things easier” said Ms Hackitt.

Last week at the Independent Schools Council (ISC) Annual Conference many of Judith’s fears were confirmed. I attended the conference and spoke to several head teachers who regularly cancel trips because they do not have time to complete risk assessments and fear what would happen to them if something did go wrong.

A new set of simplified guidelines is being finalised.  Staff can use the new guidelines when organising trips. New checklist templates for risk assessments will be made available to schools and will replace the four sets of documents that schools currently have to complete.  

 ”This tries to put it all in one place and is written in a way that people shouldn’t be overwhelmed. It’s saying it is pretty simple when you look at it” said Ms Hackitt.

The Royal Mail’s fine has been reduced after the death of one of its employees in September 2006. Colin Smith, 57, died at Royal Mail’s distribution Centre in Heathrow, after being crushed between a trailer and a tractor. The driver of the tractor was reversing to line it up with a trailer unit in a loading bay when he stopped the vehicle to answer a call. After the call he continued to reverse the tractor and was unaware that Mr Smith had approached the trailer because he was standing in his blind spot.

 Two Improvement Notices have been given to the Royal Mail. The notices require Royal Mail to carry out a new risk assessment for pedestrian activity and review its management systems for controlling access to trailers.

Karl Howes, an inspector for the HSE, said: “This was a tragic accident, which could have been easily prevented if Royal Mail had exercised proper control of vehicle activities at the Heathrow distribution centre. The company failed to adequately assess the risk to shutters working in the yard or to identify and rectify the unsafe system, and this contributed to Mr Smith’s death.”

Royal Mail Group Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 in court on 10 March. It was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £42,549 in costs.

Romtech Ltd, a manufacturing firm based in Cardiff, has been fined £40,000, after a worker’s arm was seriously hurt when it became trapped in a rotating drill. The incident occurred on 2 February 2009 at Watling Street Business Park in Norton Canes.

Steven Jones, 28, from Staffordshire was using a radial arm drill when his right hand glove became entangled in the rotating drill.  His arm got trapped in the drill and broke both bones in his forearm and damaged his muscles. The emergency services had to cut him free when they arrived on the scene.

The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulation 1998 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Andrew Bowker, an inspector at HSE, said: “Mr Jones suffered a shocking fracture to his right arm and his injuries may have been much worse if he had not been able to use his left hand to hit the machine’s stop button. The potential safety risks associated with entanglement on radial arm drilling machines have been well known for decades and control measures have been well documented in HSE guidance going back to the 1970s. It is not acceptable that this type of incident is still happening.”