Raise your safety game
During the 10 years that LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations) and PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) have been in operation, they've played a significant role in providing safe working environments across industry. Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed) member inspection companies, for example, carried out nearly 300,000 lift examinations and detected 14,000 safety defects - enabling timely corrective action to avert accidents, injury, damage and consequential loss.
Law in your own hands
You could be forgiven for thinking that on 6 April the eyes of the legal profession will be firmly on the Corporate Manslaughter (Corporate Homicide in Scotland) Act, as it comes into force. But you would be wrong. Why? Because for the vast majority of cases that have to do with health and safety, absolutely nothing changes.
Belt, braces and proactive safety
The Kings Cross tube fire on 18 November 1987, which claimed the lives of 31 people, changed attitudes to safety on the underground for ever. That one terrible incident (which led to the public inquiry chaired by Sir Desmond Fennell QC) set in train a total rethink of systems and procedures, which - following the Hidden report after the 1988 Clapham rail disaster - quickly spread to the entire rail sector.
Building a safer future
Some 2.2 million people work in Britain's construction industry and, in the last 25 years, more than 2,800 have died from work-related accidents. Many more have been injured or made ill. What's more, HSE's figures show an increase in both fatality rates (up by 28% on the previous year) and major injuries. Falling from height continues to be a problem, responsible for 30% of fatalities and 27% of major injuries. But the most common cause of accidents is slips and trips (27%).