HSE
L149: Mines Regulations 2014: Guidance on regulations
This guidance document replaces nine former Approved Codes of Practices. Guidance is updated to reflect the revocation and replacement of a broad range of mining health and safety legislation with the Mines Regulations 2014.
Approved code of Practice L43 (First-aid at mines) remains in force.
INDG411: Need building work done? A short guide for clients on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
This leaflet provides brief guidance on clients having maintenance, small-scale building work or other work carried out.
HSG280: Guidance for licence holders on the containment and control of specified animal pathogens
This guidance is aimed at persons holding Specified Animal Pathogen Order licences, users and biosafety professionals.
Safety Notices
FOD 1-2015: Earth Moving Machinery – changes to visibility requirements
This notice concerns actions on visibility to be taken by manufacturers supplying earth moving and derivative machinery to the UK market.
HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE NORTHERN IRELAND (HSENI)
HSENI has approved the following Approved Code of Practice documents for use in Northern Ireland:
Construction firm prosecuted after falling roof sheets narrowly miss karting party
A construction company has been fined after metal sheets crashed through a karting track roof – narrowly missing members of the public. The incident happened at The Raceway on the Park Lane Trading Estate, Oldbury, on 16 April 2014, where Barnsley-based KSMT Ltd had been employed to overclad the roof.
Sandwell Magistrates’ Court heard today a sub-contractor had lifted new metal roof sheets, which weighed three quarters of a tonne, on to the roof using the forks of a telehandler.
However, the sheets and one of the forks fell off and through the existing corrugated roof before crashing through a raised section of the kart track inside and coming to rest on the lower section of track.
Ten racers were using the circuit at the time, although thankfully none were in the area where the materials landed narrowly having passed through seconds earlier.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the lifting operation was poorly planned. KSMT, as the main contractor for the work, failed to assess the risks or produce a method statement or lifting plan. Metal was loaded directly on to metal, increasing the risk of slipping, and the forks of the telehandler were not wide enough to take the load.
KSMT Ltd, of Fall Bank Industrial Estate, Dodworth, Barnsley, was fined £5000 and ordered to pay a further £500 in costs with a £500 victim surcharge after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.
Leak of dangerous substance leads to £20,000 of fines
A leak of corrosive potassium hydroxide on a lorry was an ‘immediate risk’ to public safety – but, after noticing it, the driver continued a 12-mile journey.
Magistrates were told that some of the 170 plastic jerricans containing 45 per cent solution of the corrosive substance had not been adequately tightened, nor securely stacked on pallets, which in turn were not adequately braced on the trailer. The jerricans toppled over whilst being transported from Whitman Laboratories Ltd, in Petersfield, Hampshire, to Belgium, by a driver working for Allport Cargo Services Ltd, on 30 March 2014.
The driver noticed his load was leaking during a stop at a motorway service station on the M2 in Kent. He phoned his transport supervisor and said the substance was corrosive and that he wanted the emergency services to be called.
After consulting her line manager, the transport supervisor directed the driver to return to the company depot in Sittingbourne, some 12 miles away. On arrival, the extent of damage was realised and the emergency services were finally called –nearly two hours after the leak was originally discovered.
Six fire engines attended the scene and hosed down the contaminated area. The driver and warehouse supervisor, who had been called in to assist, were believed to have been exposed to the material. They were stripped down and hosed on site, before being taken to hospital for observation. The service station was also decontaminated.
Around 85 litres of potassium hydroxide was lost.
It transpired, during an investigation by HSE, that the jerricans had been loaded by an unsupervised contract employee, who had only started the job as a loader that week. The loader did not know how loads should be safety stowed and had not loaded a dangerous consignment previously. Whitman provided little guidance on safe stowage.
At Medway Magistrates’ Court, both companies pleaded guilty to a single offence under the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009. They were each fined £20,000 with costs of £3,438 and a £120 victim surcharge.
Staffordshire plastics firm fined for failing to maintain workers insurance
Merlin Mouldings (Hednesford) Ltd has been fined for failing to have Employers Liability Insurance for its workers in place.
Despite repeated warnings and reminders from The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) the company failed to have insurance in place, despite it being a legal requirement.
The company of Rugeley Road, Hednesford were sentenced in their absence by Stafford Magistrates Court on Wednesday 13 May 2015 and fined £2,500 for breaching the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. They were also ordered to pay costs of £3,191.80 and a victim surcharge of £120.
